Harry Potter and the Horcruxes
by Better Be Gone
Summary: Harry Potter hunting down the last of the Horcruxes... Draco Malfloy on a new mission... Just what is the Dark Lord up to this time around? My own take of Book Seven Please Read and Review!
1. Lesson Learned

**Harry Potter and the Horcruxes**

OK, before we start there is a few things that I would like to say.  
First up I did not create Harry Potter or anything else related to it, J K Rowling did, I do not hold any rights to it either, only Rowling and other companies holds it again. I am highly scared of lawyers and am looking forward to NOT to be sued. This is not a real Harry Potter book nor is it a real story at all. This is just something I thought would be fun to do to put my thoughts in my own version of book 7.

**Chapter 1  
Lesson Learned**

It was getting late and young boy desperately tried to stay awake. He had done something wrong and was now afraid of what he knew was to come. As time slowly passed a boy with a pale face and white blonde hair slowly drifted off to sleep.

"Draco, come here," came a high shrill of a voice, "You have not done as I have asked, I do NOT tolerate failure Draco. I am afraid I must punish you."

"Master please show mercy give me another chance."

"Now, now Draco don't worry my dear boy, I am not going to kill you…YET. But if I let you go without punishment it will appear I have become more lenient, now see if people think I have become lenient, people may start to disobey me thinking they will be alright. Now I can't let that happen now can I."

"No Master" Draco muttered. A frightened look was on his face. He prepared for the worst.

"Crucio," said the loud shrill voice. Draco fell to the ground writhing in pain. "Now Draco was that really that bad. I hope you know that when I tell somebody to do something they better do it. I let you know that the only reason you survive is even though you have not done as I ask it was accomplished thanks to you."

"Draco, wake up" came the call of Narcissa Malfoy, "breakfast is ready darling."

Draco awoke startled. He sat up in his bed and gave a sigh of relief. It was just a dream he told himself. "Draco breakfast NOW," called his mother. Draco quickly got dressed and ran downstairs to breakfast.

"What's wrong Draco," came a familiar voice. Draco looked around and his eyes fell upon a man with greasy black hair, a hooked nose and sallow skin. It was none other then Draco's former head of house and Professor Severus Snape.

"Why are you here?" Draco asked worriedly.

"That will be of no importance right now Draco. Now tell me what is bothering you."

"A dream I had," Replied Draco.

"A dream well tough up boy, a dream can't hurt you now can it. But for curiosities sake tell me what happened." Snape said almost demandingly.

"This was no ordinary dream it felt very real. The Dark Lord, had requested my presence. He told me I had failed him and that I must be punished, but he said he would not kill me because I still somehow helped accomplish my goal. He said that since I did not do it myself, he would have to punish me." Draco replied. Snape then got a worried look on his face.

"Go on Draco," spat Snape "tell me more."

"Next he gave me a new assignment and told me if I failed or allowed anyone else to do this," Draco stopped, "I can't do it Professor, he has asked way to much of me this time," Draco Cried. "He told me one of his servants has betrayed him, he said that if I did not kill him, that he would not kill just me, but my mother and father first, and that I would have to watch as he tortured them slowly to death."

"Draco remember, it was just a dream," Snape replied. He was extremely worried only Snape knew that this in fact had not been a dream but it was real. Snape had bewitched Draco to believe that it was only a dream. "Draco who did he say had betrayed him?"

"A man by the name of Regulus Black," Draco answered, "He told me that Regulus has started to destroy his Horcruxes. What's a Horcrux anyway."

"Never you mind about that Draco remember those lessons I said I was going to give you? We must start sooner than I expected, I will go prepare I expect you at Spinners End in two hours." There was a loud crack and Severus Snape was gone.

Start early Draco thought, why would he want to have me start early. Draco sat there wondering. He went, ate breakfast, and then showered. He then gathered his school supplies: his wand, his textbooks, and his robes. "Goodbye mum." And with a loud crack Draco was gone.


	2. A Joyous End

**Chapter 2  
A Joyous End**

It was a dark and cold night, a young boy with shaggy black hair and a lightning bolt scar waited for midnight. At midnight Harry Potter would turn seventeen, he would be of age in the wizarding world. He would finally be able to leave the Dursley's he would be on his own. Yet, he would never really be on his own as long as he had his friends Ron, Ginny, and Hermione.

"Harry, are you ready?" Ron asked. "The wedding is in a few days and if we are not back mum will be really mad."

"Wha… oh yea I'm ready, I just never realized how much I really do like this place." Harry had through the years grown to like his place at Number 4 Privet Drive. Even though it was a horrible part of his life it was still a part of his life he expected every summer, the thought of not coming back was kind of weird for him.

"Harry, are you saying you actually want to stay with, with those muggles that hate you? Why would you want to do that?" asked Ron Inquiringly.

"NO," Harry shouted, "I would never want to live with my Aunt and Uncle longer then I have to. I just really have grown to like this place. I'm ready to get away from my Aunt and Uncle." Harry thought that maybe deep down he really did want to stay with the Dursley's but he knew that would be a bad idea.

"Happy Birthday Harry," Hermione and Ginny shouted. Harry had been so deep in thought and in conversation with Ron that he had almost forgotten they were there. He looked at the clock and sure enough it was 12:00 a.m. Harry was finally of age.

"Let's get some sleep," said Ginny, "Dad will be here to escort us back to the burrow at 8:00. We can finish packing in the morning." Ginny said as she noticed Ron and Harry hurrying to gather all of Harry's things.

When they awoke later that morning, they decided they would go down and get some breakfast. To everybody's surprise when they reached the kitchen they were greeted by Aunt Petunia. She had cooked a nice big breakfast of bacon, pancakes, eggs, and sausage. "Well eat up kids you have a long journey ahead of you."

"Aunt Petunia why are you being so nice to me and my friends?" Harry asked with amazement.

"Well I thought since this was the last time I will be seeing you for a while I wanted you to know that I have always loved you Harry, even though I treated you like dirt you were like my second son."

"Thanks, I promise you I will write often to let you know how I'm doing."  
"Glad to hear it."

The children ate their breakfast they went upstairs and finished packing. They then spent time talking about what they thought of the wedding that was to shortly come and how they were going to spend the last few months of summer. They were all to afraid to talk about what had happened only a few weeks earlier.

A ring at the door signaled the arrival of Arthur Weasley, the children then lugged Harry's stuff downstairs. Harry said quick goodbyes to his family and then Arthur sent Harry's stuff to the burrow and apparated out of sight.


	3. The Wedding

**Chapter 3  
The Wedding**

The Night was cold and dark. There was a nice refreshing mist surrounding the very last house on a street known as Spinner's End. With a loud crack a boy with white blonde hair appeared at the end of the street. Draco slowly made his way down Spinner's End. When he reached the last house he went to knock on the door, but when he did the door opened and there stood Snape.

"Come in Draco, you're late," spat Snape with frustration. "I told you, you needed to be here an hour ago, I have much to teach you and not much time. You must do whatever I say without hesitation my boy, yo…"

"Professor what exactly are we going to do?" Draco interrupted, "and why are we starting early, what's happened to make you want to do this quickly?"

"Draco I will tell you all that eventually, you must promise me that you will do whatever I say when I say it. Do you promise, Draco?" Snape stated with anger in his voice. He knew that if he did not prevent Malfoy from doing this he would fail to protect him, and thus break the unbreakable vow that he made to his mother. Snape wanted to make sure that Malfoy would be ready to do anything to protect himself without becoming a murderer.

"Yes, Professor, I promise." Draco stated starting to get worried as to why he must do this.

"Draco this has been a long day for the both of us, lets get some rest before we begin our lessons in the morning. Don't worry Draco; there are enough protective spells and incantations on this house that even the Dark Lord would have trouble getting in it. Our lessons are going to very vigorous, I need you to be fully rested." Snape said, "now off to bed.'

The next morning many miles away Harry Potter, Hermione, and the Weasley's arrived at the burrow. It looked so brilliant in preparation for the wedding. They had decorated everything in the burrow in bright colors, Bill and Fleur's favorites of course, the house looked so magnificent Harry could hardly believe his eyes. Harry even noticed when he saw a garden gnome that even it too was wearing a little purple hat in celebration. Harry wondered why it was decorated so early seeing as how the wedding wasn't until this weekend.

Arthur Weasley leaned over to his son Ron and whispered something in his ear. Harry wondered what he could possibly have said for when he stood straight and started walking to the house Ron came over and started to talk to Harry, and then asked if he wanted to play some quidditch for a while. Harry of course agreed.

"Harry, Ron, come in the house Dinner's ready." Mrs. Weasley yelled.  
"Be right there mum," Ron retorted, and with that he and Harry took the quidditch stuff and the brooms back to the shed and then headed into the house. As the slowly approached the house Harry began to wonder why Hermione and Ginny didn't play quidditch with them.

"Ron why didn't you invite your sister and Hermione to play with us? I mean seriously they do everything with us." Harry asked. Deep down inside him he knew that there was something going on he just didn't know what.

"They had to get ready for the uh, the wedding this weekend." Ron lied, he wasn't to sure whether Harry believed him either because Harry had already asked why the house was all decorated and Ron couldn't come up with a very good answer for it.

When they got in the house they looked around and saw nobody and noticed that it was very quiet. "Ron? Where is everybody?" Harry wondered. He knew something was wrong, not knowing what to expect and fearing it might be death eaters he pulled out his wand.

Just as Harry raised his wand he heard a loud crack followed by a round of "Surprise, happy birthday Harry.' He looked around and noticed that the Weasley's, Hermione, and some of the order, Lupin, Tonks, and Kingsley Shacklebolt were just a few of them, had apparated right into the sitting room of the burrow. Ecstatic Harry said, "Thank you guys so much. You guys are such good friends this is going to be the best birthday I have ever had," and with that they celebrated Harry's birthday.

A few days later it was time for the wedding. Everybody had time to catch up and had fun celebrating Harry's birthday while also preparing for the wedding. With a couple hours to go Harry and Ron sat in the living room and waited for Bill to come downstairs. Bill was going to inform Harry and Ron of what they were to be doing during the wedding. Ron was going to be in charge of getting everybody to their seats, and making sure nobody did anything wrong.

A few hours later the end of the wedding was signaled, by the twins letting some of their fireworks go. The fireworks zoomed all around the yard in many magnificent colors and shapes. Just then many round tables appeared around the yard, and Molly's voice was heard to say, "The dinner is ready to begin everybody grab a seat and then the feast will begin. Harry, Ron, the twins, Hermione, and Ginny all grabbed seats at the same table. After everybody was seated, Mr. Weasley made a toast to his son and his new daughter. "To my son, and my beautiful new daughter, may you live a long life of happiness together that your children will one day want to be just like you." With that the feast began.

Food appeared on every table, it reminded Harry of Hogwarts' welcoming feast. Harry then realized how much he was going to miss Hogwarts and reconsidered not going even though Dumbledore would no longer be there.

Everybody headed off for bed after dinner to enjoy his or her last few days before summer was over. The four friends talked about what they were going to do when they got back to school and what was required for them this year. Harry told them he finally decided to go back to school but would have to tell Professor McGonagall that he would occasionally need to go do something that Dumbledore asked him to do.

Later that night back at Spinner's End Draco was doing extremely well in the lessons that Snape was teaching him. "Why exactly are you teaching me this I don't see how it will be helpful in accomplishing my task," Draco stated. Snape had told him that it was not a dream and that these lessons were going to help him accomplish the task.

"One day you will realize why this will help you with your task lets just say for now that it gives you some protection few wizards have. I am one of those few wizards the Dark Lord, and that foolish Dumbledore are a few others.' Snape stated. "We shall continue tomorrow for now lets get some food.


	4. Returning Home

**Chapter 4  
Returning Home**

The summer air was becoming cool; the nice breeze of fall was beginning to come. Harry Potter looked out his window at the heavy rain that was occurring outside the burrow. He wished that he could go outside and play quidditch one more time before going back to school in two days. He knew he couldn't play tomorrow because he had to go do something.

"Ron, are you ready for tomorrow," asked Mrs. Weasley, who as always was worried about her son and Harry. Tomorrow Harry, Ron, and Hermione would go to Godric's Hollow, to see if they could find any clues as to where to find the Horcruxes. "Yes mum," Ron Replied, I have everything I need and we have been working on spells to help us with what we need."

"Harry? Is something wrong with you?" Ron asked. Ron had noticed that Harry looked kind of depressed today.

"Oh well its nothing really. I just would really like to have played quidditch one more time before going back to school. I mean school is just going to be so different and I'm not sure if they are going to have quidditch." Harry replied disappointed.

Just then Ginny walked in and noticed Harry was depressed. Ginny who had been dating Harry during the previous school year decided to try and cheer him up. "What's wrong Harry?" She asked.

"Oh nothing Ginny, its just I'm not sure whether I'm ready for tomorrow I don't know if I will be able to take the being in the place where Voldemort killed my parents and tried to kill me." Harry said. "I just don't think I can do it, but I have to."

"Well Harry I say you take your mind off it for now and worry about it tomorrow when we get there."

"WE?" Harry said. "I'm not letting you go I don't want to put you in danger, that's why I broke up with you." Harry still liked Ginny he just knew that if he was with her she would be in a lot of danger and that was something that Harry just couldn't handle.

"I don't care what you say Harry I'm going, mum already said I could."

"Ginny I want you to be safe I care about you too much to put you in danger, I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you. I love you too much." Harry said.

"Harry that's just it that's why I'm going, Dumbledore always said that love was the strongest magic. If we have our love Harry we will be protected." Ginny said and then leaned over and gave Harry a kiss. Harry who still loved Ginny kissed her back.

They sat and talked for hours over what they thought would happen. Ginny was in Harry's arms. They talked so long that by the time they realized they were back together just like they were at Hogwarts. It was already 1:00 am.

"Let's get some sleep," Harry said, "we have a long day ahead of us, I mean that is if you still are coming with us."

"Of course I'm coming Harry." Ginny said, and with that they were off to bed.

The next morning the sun was shining bright it was a nice warm day to end the summer. Harry was no longer scared of what he might find that day. After spending hours with Ginny and getting back together with her he could care less about what he found, he knew that whatever happened he would be ok as long as he and Ginny had their love.

"Ok, everybody are you ready?" Harry asked. "We are going to apparate close to Godric's Hollow, Ginny will side apparate with me. I don't know what to expect when we get there so be on your guard everybody. I'm glad you guys are coming with me and that we passed our apparation tests." Then there was a loud crack and Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione were gone.

A few seconds later there is a loud crack, and they appear on the street that Harry used to live on. Many of the neighbor hood cats took off at the sound of the apparation. They headed down the street until they came to the house.

"This is it," said Harry, "I don't know how I know but this must be it." It was a marvelous, two story Victorian house. "Let's go in." When they got inside they were surprised to see that on the inside it was nothing like it was on the outside, it was a wreck nobody had lived there since the Potter's, and nobody had been there to repair it since that night when Voldemort attacked.

"What are we looking for Harry," asked Hermione, who had started digging through piles of rubbish.

"I'm not quite sure but we will know when we find it." Harry replied.

They searched for hours and hours and they found nothing they searched every room of the house and nothing turned up. "I know we are suppose to find something here I just don't know what it is.

"Harry," said Hermione, "what if there is a hidden room here? I've heard of wizards using spells to hide certain rooms in their house to protect it from muggle thieves, most witches and wizards hide anything magic in there." Hermione who was a very intelligent witch for her age knew that something had to be missing or they would have found it by know.

"Well if that's true Hermione, how would we get in ourselves if it is hidden?" Ginny asked. "Is there a spell to find it?"

"Yes of course there's a spell but it will only work if you are related to the person who originally cast it. Harry you will have to do it. The spell is Apparingo."

"APPARINGO" Harry shouted. The room started to shake violently, and stairs appeared in the ground leading to a basement. "It worked Hermione it worked! Let's check it out."

"You have to go by yourself Harry, again only relation can enter." Hermione said, "We will wait for you back at the burrow. Goodbye Harry."

"Goodbye." Harry said  
Harry started his way down the stairs hoping that he could find what he needed. He looked around and saw old school books, some old brooms, various potion ingredients, and what looked to be a spell book. Harry went over to investigate it. He read the title of the book, "How to Survive Death." Harry began reading; he read the index and skipped right to the chapter about Horcruxes. He found out that wizards who create horcruxes usually like to go back to places they know and use things they treasure for their horcruxes.

"Dumbledore told me that he thought how could I forget that." Harry thought. He continued reading until he noticed writing in the margins; he recognized this writing it was none other then Dumbledore's.

Voldemort's believed Horcruxes  
1.A Diary  
2.A ring from his grandfather  
3.Hufflepuffs cup  
4.Slytherins locket  
5.Something that belonged to Ravenclaw or Gryffindor  
6.Nagini (his snake)  
James this is what I believe Voldemort has used as he horcruxes. Use the information, as you will. I believe it will be helpful. Your friend, Albus Dumbledore.

Harry again realized that he had been told this before. Harry then apparated back to the burrow.

The next day on the train to Hogwarts Harry decided to let them in on the information he found. He then said, "If it took Dumbledore and my father this long to track down the horcruxes how do they expect me to do it so quickly? I know we have destroyed two of them but come on how am I suppose to get four if this has taken Dumbledore seventeen years to find just two."

"I expect we will be at Hogwarts in a few minutes, you can ask Dumbledore then Harry," said Ginny.

"Ginny have you forgotten Dumbledore is dead, I can't ask him anything he is dead." Harry replied. Just then he realized what she was talking about, "His portrait." He exclaimed, "of course his portrait can talk and I'm sure it has his mind. Ginny you're a genius." He then gave Ginny a quick kiss as a thank you.

"Would you to cut that out she is my sister I don't like seeing her snogging all over the place."

When they arrived at Hogwarts and entered the great hall they noticed that there were three new teachers at the teachers table. Professor McGonagall they noticed was sitting in the center where Dumbledore usually sat. They looked at the teachers and then they realized something. "Harry isn't that Tonks at the table?"


	5. The New DADA Teacher

**Chapter 5  
The New DADA Teacher.**

After the sorting ceremony was over, and before the feast began, Professor McGonagall got up to address the students. "Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts," she began, "our numbers are few this year because some people didn't feel it safe. Let me reassure you that we have taken every precaution we could to ensure your safety this year. I would like to take the time to introduce our three new teachers, Professor Slughorn and Professor Snape are both gone and with me being the new headmistress I had to replace my position. First our new Potions teacher is Professor Thomas Dippet, he is the grandson of a previous headmaster, next our new Transfiguration teacher will be Nymphadora Tonks, and lastly our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is Professor Louise Hall, she has been an Auror for twenty years and was glad to take a break to teach students. Now let the feast begin."

The feast began as food piled up on the tables, students all around dug in. Harry began with treacle tart, his favorite. He looked around while eating and noticed that not many people from Slytherin were here. "Hey Ron, where do you think all the Slytherin's are?" Harry asked.

"Probably trying to figure out where their leader Malfoy is." Ron joked. Everybody at the Gryffindor table burst into laughter at this comment. Ron felt really happy inside knowing he made a good joke. "So Harry have you figured out how you are going to talk to Dumbledore's portrait yet?" Ron whispered.

"Yea I figure I can ask McGonagall if I can come to her office and then I'll just start talking to him." Harry said.

"That would probably make her mad, and you won't like her when she's mad as we've learned how many times now? Oh well too many to count." Ron laughed at his on comment.

After the feast Harry waited around for Professor McGonagall while the others retired to the Gryffindor common room. When she finally came out of the Great Hall, she noticed Harry was waiting for her. "Can I help you Potter?" She asked.

"Professor I was just wondering if I could talk to you in your office for a second. I need to tell you something but I can't have anybody around hearing it." He lied.

"This way Potter lets hurry this though Dumbledore told me to hurry back."

They made there way through the halls of Hogwarts to the stone gargoyle that marked the hidden entrance to the Headmasters chamber. "Tabby" said Professor McGonagall and the Gargoyle Sprung to life and they got on the moving stairs to her office.  
"Ahh Professor McGonagall you are back, oh and I see you already brought Harry how did you know I was going to ask you to retrieve him." Came a voice from Dumbledore's portrait.

"Well actually Albus he asked to see me, but you said what you needed was urgent so I will let you talk to him first." Professor McGonagall said, "Harry I will be in the Gryffindor common room when you are done. I haven't selected a new teacher to be in charge of the house yet so I will remain in charge for a while." With that she headed back out of her office and to the Gryffindor common room.

"Professor you wanted to see me? I wanted to see you too I had to lie to McGonagall because I didn't think she would let me talk to you," said Harry.

"Harry I wanted to ask you how you are doing on your quest, more specifically since I know you haven't started looking for the horcruxes yet, what did you find back at Godric's Hollow?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well Professor I found a book that you gave to my dad, it explains all about Horcruxes, and other ways to cheat death. It stated that these ways are usually only used when one fears death or when one knows they will be needed again. It only gave two ways that a good wizard would use, and that was becoming a ghost or having a portrait, but it said either way you are still dead but you can communicate with the living world." Harry stated.

"Yes Harry that is true, but tell me what useful information you found in that book or were reminded of?" Dumbledore asked.

"When it spoke of horcruxes it said that most wizards revisit places they know, and used things of value to them, because they knew that they already had some of their spirit there, just not a part that could keep them alive. So I think that Voldemort might have hidden a horcrux right here inside the walls of Hogwarts." Harry said.

"Good," said Dumbledore, "I didn't even have to give you any hints that I had that suspicion too. Now do you have any idea of where he might have hidden it?"

"Well it would be someplace he visited that he was sure people wouldn't find or wouldn't care so I was thinking either in the chamber of secrets or in the Slytherin common room. I didn't see anything when I was in the chamber five years ago but I wasn't looking then but I would still rather try the Slytherin common room, but then of course I was there five years ago as well." Harry said.

"Yes Harry you are correct to think of those two places, but you leave one room out a room which you have been in many times, do you know what room I am talking about?" Dumbledore asked.

"The Room of Requirement of course. Thank you professor. Oh and Professor since I am going to be looking for horcruxes this year and I am sure all of them are not in the castle can you help me talk Professor McGonagall into allowing me Ron and Hermione off the grounds when we need to go somewhere?" He asked.

"Of course, but you better just let me talk to her, now go back to your common room and go to bed its late."

Sure enough when Harry looked at the clock he realized it was 10:30 pm. Harry left the Headmistresses office and headed back to the Gryffindor common room. When he got back he told McGonagall that Dumbledore had answered his question and that Dumbledore wanted to talk to her. After McGonagall left Harry told Ron and Hermione what Dumbledore had said and what was going to happen with hunting the horcruxes. After that Hermione talked them into going to bed so they would be ready for their classes tomorrow. After all they had three new teachers, two they didn't know and all three who they didn't know how they taught.

When they woke up in the morning Ron and Harry went to breakfast in the Great Hall where they meet Hermione before heading off to their first Transfiguration class of the year.

"I hope Tonks is going to be a good teacher. Everybody always dislikes the teachers that we know before hand," Hermione said. "I mean she is a really gifted witch."

"I'm sure she will be fine," Harry said, "like you said she's a gifted witch."

When they arrived for Transfiguration that day they all took seats at the front and said, "Hi" to Tonks. They all wondered what they were going to be doing this year they were ready to try anything.

"Welcome class," Tonks began, "Today instead of getting right down to business and having homework and all I thought we would have a little fun." With that she changed her appearance. The class was in awe over it except for the three that already knew she could do it. "Okay now that I've had my fun, we are going to practice whatever you want. You guys tell me what you want to transfigure and we will do it."

The class deliberated for a minute and then decided that they wanted to turn boxes into birdhouses, and water goblets into birds. "Ok class you may do it the incantation for turning boxes into birdhouses is as follows, it is very simple, Funiruto."

"Funiruto," the class repeated.

"Very good, now as you recall the incantation for turning birds into water goblets is Feraverto, the spell to do the reverse is really easy and very similar Teraverto." Tonks said.  
"Teraverto" the class repeated. That day they turned enough boxes into birdhouses for every bird they made to have three birdhouses.

Next the children had potions, they were interested to see how Professor Dippet would teach after all his grandfather used to be a Headmaster, so they figured he would be a great teacher. When they walked down the familiar corridor that led to potions they all finally realized that they were done with Professor Snape forever, they no longer had to deal with him, this put a new outlook on their school life.

When they arrived in Potions Professor Dippet had a familiar potion on his desk. "Polyjuice potion," he said, a potion that allows you to temporarily take on the appearance of somebody else. It doesn't look or taste very good but its effects are great for finding out some information. Today we will be starting the process of making the potion and then in a month we will have a little test."

"A test," the class said, "on what the potion does or on how it's made."

"Neither, I guess I should have mentioned the test will be related to your Defense Against the Dark Arts Class. You will be determining who is the really person by using spells you learn in Defense Against the Dark Arts."

They got all the necessary ingredients to make the potion and started them in their cauldrons. They then we released from class and allowed to wonder freely until DADA started. When they arrived in DADA that day they were really hoping that they would have a lesson as easy as their other two. They didn't know how wrong they were going to be.

"Harry Potter, come here," said Professor Hall after they had arrived in class. "I want you to help me teach the class today. Don't worry Potter we are just going to teach them some new spells and how to counter them. I want you to have a little duel with me Potter. Draw your wand. Wands at the ready, now bow."

"Now Potter I want you to defend yourself in every way you know how. I want you to use anything you can to block these next few curses." Said Professor Hall

"Rohashito" cried Professor Hall.

"Protego" Harry shouted and to his and the classes surprise it didn't work. Harry began feeling very sick and started throwing up everywhere and his nose stated bleeding.

"This curse can only be blocked by one certain spell which I will teach you, when blocked the effect is sent back to the caster, the good thing about the spell to block rohashito, is it can be used on many other curses including crucio the unforgivable curse. By learning this you should fare really well against death eaters. Oh before I forget. I might want to use the countercurse on Harry to heal him. I will then need somebody to take him to the hospital wing. Twathi." Harry immediately felt better and his nose stopped bleeding.

"Before you go the spell to block the curse is as follows. Now listen carefully. Hahistsna. Now somebody take Harry to the hospital wing.


	6. The Stranger

**Chapter 6  
The Stranger**

When Harry awoke the next morning, Madame Pomfrey said that he should be well enough to go on his way. He went to breakfast and ate quickly. Just as he was leaving Hedwig brought him two letters. He took them off of her leg and gave her some toast and then quickly opened the first one and read:

_Harry meet me in my office at noon, and bring Ron and Hermione with you. _

_We have some matters that we need to discuss, they a very urgent._

_See you there. _

_Professor McGonagall._

I wonder what she wants thought Harry, I bet Dumbledore finally talked her into letting me leave when I need to. Well I guess I'll get the others and head there before lunch. He then opened the next letter, it read:

_I hear you are looking for Voldemort's Horcruxes, if you are we have a similar mission, I would like you to meet me in the Gryffindor Common Room at Midnight tonight, I have some things I would like to discuss with you, and maybe we can exchange information on the Horcruxes. R.A.B._

R.A.B Harry thought this is great I can finally find out what happened to that locket. I can't wait to meet with him. Harry quickly turned the piece of paper over and wrote I will meet you there at midnight. Harry who learned never to trust anyone was going to be ready for anything. He went back to the Gryffindor common room and found Ron and Hermione.

"Hey guys," he started, "McGonagall wants to see the three of us in her office at noon today. She says it is urgent so it must be important, I think it is going to be permission for us to leave the grounds when we need too."

"That's great Harry do you have any idea of where a Horcrux might be?" Ron asked. "Did Dumbledore give you any clues when you talked to him yesterday."

"Well yea but I don't think we can go yet, we have to figure out just where it is, well I know where, but I don't know where, do you know what I mean?" Harry asked.

"Sorry, you lost me. How can you know where it is, but not know where it is at the same time?" Hermione asked.

"Well it's in the Room of Requirement, but we would have to figure out what Voldemort was thinking when he was let into the room. That way we can get into the exact same room as him."

"Oh I see." Both Ron and Hermione said.

"Oh yea, I want you guys to hide under my invisibility cloak tonight at midnight in the common room, I got a letter from R.A.B. this morning, but I'm not sure whether it is a trick or not. So I would like all the protection I can have incase it's a death eater trying to get at me." Harry said. "Oh and I would also like to start DA meetings again, tonight if possible, I figure we can use the Room of Requirement and see if we notice anything strange."

"Harry you know we won't be much help for you if it is a death eater, I mean if we are under a cloak how are we suppose to cast the spells?" Hermione asked.

"Well I just thought having you there would be good I figure for a while I can defend myself until you guys can come to help me, and if this thing is for real it saves me a monologue to you guys." Harry said.

Later that day after their Charms class the three made their way to Professor McGonagall's office. When they arrived at the stone Gargoyle, Neville who had been looking for Harry to see if they were going to have any DA meetings this year approached them. Harry quickly told him they were and that they were in a hurry and he would talk to him later. Neville took off looking sad, Harry immediately felt bad.

"Neville," Harry called, "we have a meeting tonight from 9-11 if you can make it, and it is in the Room of Requirement like usual. Right now we have to go see Professor McGonagall, she asked to see us though."

"Ok, see you then Harry." Neville called back, and with that done he was much happier that he skipped off to the common room.

"Tabby," Harry said. The stone Gargoyle jumped to life and the three friends entered into McGonagall's office. This time Harry noticed that the office was quite different, instead of all of Dumbledore's gadgets everywhere, there were spell books, flowers, and different kinds of things that Harry could obviously tell were used to practice Transfiguration when she had the time.

"Ahh Harry, welcome, yes very good Ron and Hermione are here to. Professor Hall could you excuse us for a moment? We have some personal business to attend to." McGonagall said. After Professor Hall left McGonagall said, "Dumbledore has made an awfully strange request on behalf of the three of you he wouldn't give me any details and told me that you wouldn't tell me anything either. He asked that I let you guys leave the grounds when needed. I told him that if he thought it was important I would allow it, if and only if you three agreed to tell me where you were going, how long you are going to be gone, and that you keep up with all your school work. Dumbledore made me promise not to ask what you were going to be doing, but if you feel the need to tell me please do."

"Thanks." Harry said, "I really appreciate it, I promise that we will let you know when we are leaving, where we are going, and how long we plan on being gone."

"And I Promise we will keep up with our school work." Hermione interjected.

"Very well, here are your passes to get out of class when you need to come see me, the teachers know not to ask questions if you show them this pass. I was just about to let Professor Hall know when you guys arrived. Please send her back in when you leave."

They left the office and told Professor Hall to go back into the Headmistresses office. After telling her they proceeded to make their way to the Fat Lady. When arriving at the Fat Lady, they gave her the password, squantis, then crawled into the common room.

"Okay we need to plan the DA meeting, and how to clear the common room at midnight." Harry said.

"Well I can take care of letting everybody know about the DA meeting, as long as they still have their coin. Just give me yours Harry and I'll take care of it." Hermione stated with pride.

"And I can get the twins to send us one of their stink bombs, and one of their stink bomb smell removers, they owe me for not telling mum what they did at the wedding. I was the only one to notice and promised I wouldn't tell anybody, but I figure I can use it as blackmail." Ron said.

"Ok then it's settled, here is my coin Hermione, and Ron I'll let you use Hedwig to deliver the letter, she will be faster then Pig." Harry said.

With that they went on their separate ways. After dinner the three went early to the Room of Requirement to get set up for the DA meeting. At 9 o'clock everybody started showing up. Among the group was, Ginny, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Luna, the Creevy brothers, and many other younger students Harry didn't know, he assumed that they were younger siblings of those in the DA that had left Hogwarts.

"Today, we are going to be working on the Defense spell that Professor Hall taught us, she said it can be used to block most spells and send them back at the caster." Harry said. "I want everybody to pair up, and take turns casting a spell, and casting the block. Use any spell you want that won't severely hurt anybody, remember you may be the one getting hit by the curse. Remember the incantation for the block is Hahistsna.

Harry walked around the room and watched as teams took turns casting curses. He was impressed to see that Neville was first, other then himself and Hermione, to master the block. He also noticed that Ginny was doing very well at blocking the curses that were sent her way. This went on for two hours. At the end of the two hours Harry got everybody to leave the room and asked them to return to their common rooms quickly, as it was getting close to being after hours.

When Harry got back to the common room, he was still worried about getting everyone out of the common room by midnight, and if it was going to be safe for him to be there.

"Ron, it's 11:30 has the stink bomb arrived yet?" Harry asked.

"Not yet, but the twins know it has to be here by…" Ron started, he got up went to the window, and let the owl he was looking at in. It had a package tied to its leg for Ron. "I knew the twins would pull through," he said as he untied the package.

"Ron run upstairs and get the invisibility cloak then you and Hermione get under it, at 11:55 if there are still others in the common room I want you to release the stink bomb. Then at midnight release the antidote for it." Harry said.

At 11:55 a powerful odor spread through the Gryffindor common room, everybody, but Harry ran from the common room holding their breath. A few minutes later they released the anti-stink bomb, and the odor cleared. Just then a tall man with black curly hair appeared in the fireplace, he walked out, and then Harry realized.

"Sirius?"

**

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A/N - woo! my first cliffhanger! now If I have ANY readers at all ANY could you pleaase review! Its kinda lonely without a review!**


	7. The Hidden Horcrux

**Chapter 7  
The Hidden Horcrux**

"Sirius? Oh no, so you know my brother do you? How is he doing? I figure you stay in touch with him. After all I've been hiding for years; Voldemort knows what I've done. He believes I am dead by now, or at least I hope. By the way my name is Regulus Albert Black. I was a death eater, but was shown the error of my ways by Dumbledore; he changed me so I told him about the Horcruxes, and what I thought they were. He told me he would let his best friend James in on it."

"You were the reason Dumbledore knew? Did you happen to give him this book?" Harry asked with curiosity. Harry ran upstairs and grabbed the book from his trunk. He finally found it under all of his other books. He brought it done and showed it to Regulus. Harry hoped with all his might that Regulus would be able to help him as much as he could.

"Well I didn't give it to him, but I told him about it. Anyway, that's not important right now. I know where one of the Horcruxes is; I left it at my old house. I can't get in. It looks like the Fidelius Charm has been placed on it. I was hoping you knew a way in. After all you do know my brother who is the owner of the house." Regulus said with extreme hope.

"Sirius died a year and a half ago, I'm sorry you had to find out like this. He was killed by your cousin Bellatrix." Harry said with despair. "I inherited the house though so I can get you in. Where did you put it?" He asked hoping it was the locket he had found two years earlier.

"It was in the drawing room of my old house. I would suppose that our house elf has moved it though." Regulus said with disappointment. "Oh well I must go, I cannot stay if somebody were to find me my cover could be blown and I would be number one on Voldemort's hit list." He climbed into the fireplace, grabbed some floo powder from a bag inside of his black coat yelled Diagon Alley, and he disappeared in a bright green flame.

"Ron, Hermione, did you guys here that, one of the Horcruxes is at number twelve Grimmauld Place. We saw it two years ago." Harry said. Then he suddenly realized that they weren't responding. "Accio Invisibility Cloak" Harry shouted. What he saw then was a major shock. "Ron, were you and Hermione snogging under the cloak that whole time? What if I had been attacked? Please tell me you heard _some_ of what Regulus said." Ron's Face went bright Red, he was more embarrassed then he had ever been in his life.

"Sorry mate, it just kind of felt right. I mean we were close together and nobody could see us. We had already let each other know how we felt, I mean it was obvious but we thought we would let our feeling loose." Ron said with pride. "Sorry but we didn't hear any of it."  
"Well I'm not going to fill you in then. Let's go see McGonagall." Then they were off to the stone Gargoyle. They headed down the halls and ran into Peeves, who had made it his personal responsibility to make sure that everybody that walked down the Hallway got soaked. Peeves hit them with lots of water balloons until they decided to run away quickly.

When they finally arrived at the Stone Gargoyle, they shouted the password, and found out that it had been changed.

"Great, how are we suppose to see Professor McGonagall if we can't even get into her office?" Ron asked. Frustrated Ron started swearing about everything always going wrong when he needed to do something. Harry was quick to respond and got him to calm down quickly.

"Potter, Weasley, Granger, what are you three doing here at this hour of the morning? I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you guy's detention. You know better then to be out after hours." Said Tonks, "It just isn't safe to be out without a teacher.

"Tonks, we have to see Professor McGonagall, it's an Emergency, we have to go do something for uh, uh for uh something." Harry said.

"Nice try Harry but that's not going to work, you three will serve detention with me this Saturday, I expect you in my office at 8pm. If you are late I will be forced to give you another detention." Tonks said. She was getting angry with Harry for trying to get out of trouble that he had obviously gotten himself into.

"Professor," Hermione said, "can you please tell us the password it really is urgent." Then she remembered something that Harry had told her, she reached into the pockets of her robe and pulled out a card. The card that gave them permission to leave whenever they wanted as long as they let McGonagall know.

"So it has to do with your mission, does it, well I guess I can make an exception, but I still would like you to come to my office at 8pm on Saturday it gets lonely." Tonks stated dispersedly. "Anyway the password is animagus."

The stone gargoyle sprang to life and the trio got on the moving stairs and went up to see Professor McGonagall. When they got to the door, they heard voices coming from inside of the office.

"I know, I know." Came a familiar voice.

"Then you know why I must do it then. You know why I must res…" McGonagall stated, but the voice of Mad Eye Moody interrupted her.

"Potter and his friends are here, he looks like he needs to talk to you." Moody said. "Well I'll just be on my way, I needed to go anyway. There is some order business that needs to be taken care of." He stepped in the fireplace, grabbed a pinch of floo powder, shouted Grimmauld Place and disappeared in a flash of emerald green flames.

"Come in Potter," McGonagall's voice said. "What do you want this time? I was in an important discussion until you got here. This better be important."

"Professor," Harry said with anxiety. "We have to go to Grimmauld Place, our assignment leads us there." He hoped that McGonagall wouldn't be angry since it had to do with their mission. He looked up at her hopefully.

"Well how do you plan on getting there? I already said that if you tell me when, where, and how long you are going you can go." She stated

"We were going to walk off the grounds and then apparate," Hermione said. We shouldn't be gone longer then a day, and we promise we won't get in the way of the order."

"Well ok, but if you would like, you may use my fireplace to travel by floo powder, it will be much safer and quicker at this hour of the morning." McGonagall said. "I will expect to see you back before 8am tomorrow morning."

"Agreed Professor," the trio said. They then smiled at her, and one by one, got into the fireplace, grabbed floo powder, shouted Grimmauld Place and disappeared in a flash of emerald green flame.

"Draco, you are doing much better then I expected." Came the voice of Severus Snape. "I believe that we are almost complete. We will soon start working on spells that can help you."

"So Professor, how exactly is occlumency going to protect me?" Draco asked. He was back to his usually snobby self by this time, he knew as long as he was with Snape he was safe. This brought back his old proud self.

"Draco, wipe that smug expression off your face." Snape spat, "This does not fully protect you from anything. It only protects you from lying, if you lie to the Dark Lord, he will not be able to read your mind and know that you are lying. You will be able to keep him out of real memories and show him fake ones. I have been doing this for years. I knew that one day I would fail him, and I would need the protection."

"So you are saying the Dark Lord will not know that I have failed? Then that means I don't have to kill Regulus Black?" Draco asked with hope. He knew that he could never kill anybody; he just didn't feel he could do it.

"Well maybe, but he will have to die. The Dark Lord will know if he is alive or dead. So somebody must kill him, somebody with Occlumens, and you must be there with him." Snape said. He was worried; he knew that it would have to be him that killed the former death eater Regulus Black.

"Draco, tonight I want you to work on blocking your mind from everything. This will help with your lessons. I expect only one more week before you finally master it." Snape said. "That is way better then Potter ever did." Snape stated with malice.

"Potter? You tried to teach Potter occlumency? Why would you do that?" Draco asked inquisitively. He began to wonder which side Snape was really on. He knew that if Snape was really on the good side that Voldemort would find out, and kill him. Then he thought: what if he kills Snape then who would protect me. Draco's smug expression was replaced by one of worry.

"That stupid fool Dumbledore told me I had to. He told me if I didn't I would lose my job. I knew that if I was to stop spying on Dumbledore, then the Dark Lord would kill me." Snape stated. "Anyway off to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long, long day."

Back at Grimmauld Place, Lupin, the older Weasley's, Mad Eye, and Kingsley Shacklebolt were having a meeting planning out when they were going to make their attack.

"We must strike soon, or we will face more casualties, we have already lost some of the Order, Dumbledore is dead, our greatest member. If we don't act quickly we will surely lose." Mad Eye said. He was angry; he had lost his good friend only a few months earlier and was worried about losing the rest.

"NO," shouted Harry. "If you strike too soon we will lose, Voldemort will just come back again. He has ways of doing it. If you strike now we will lose too many people in the fight, and even if Voldemort does fall he will return. You will strike when I say you can strike." Harry was furious he did not want to lose any more innocent lives in this battle until he was sure he could defeat Voldemort. After all it was he, Harry that must be the one to destroy Voldemort.

"POTTER!" Moody yelled, "YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS TELLING THE ORDER WHEN WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING, WE ARE MORE EDUCATED AND WOULD BE ABLE TO DEFEND OURSELVES BETTER THEN YOU."

"Calm down Mad Eye." Lupin said. "We must believe Potter after all it was he that Dumbledore trusted with the mission. The mission he wouldn't inform anybody of. He told us that something had to be done, but he wouldn't tell us what." Lupin knew about the mission, he was a skilled Legilmens just like Dumbledore, nobody knew. He had read Harry's mind when Harry had given his little spiel on not attacking yet. "Harry, can I talk to you, Ron, and Hermione alone for a minute?" Lupin asked.

"Yes but can it wait a minute? We are on very important business. The mission brought us here. We must complete the task as quickly as possible." Harry stated he was beginning to get impatient; he was worried that Mundungus had taken the locket and he just had to find it.

"It won't take long Harry, and I find it important that I tell you this." Lupin said.

"Fine, but make it quick." Harry said

They left the kitchen, walked slowly up the stairs making sure to avoid the stairs that creaked. They did not want to wake up Sirius' mother. They walked into the room that Harry had stayed in two years previous.

"Harry, I know about the horcruxes. I want to help you. You can say no if you want but I think I can help. I can help you travel if that is all I do." Lupin said.

"What? How? Who told you about the horcruxes?"

"Well sorry Harry I didn't mean to pry, but when you were talking to Moody, I used the Legilmens that I have mastered to see why you felt so strongly about it." Lupin started, "you must have realized that I could read minds, after all it was not Sirius's words that convinced me, it was his memories."

"You know, well then help us look for the locket. We know it is somewhere in this house. We saw it two years ago when we were cleaning out the drawing room."

They went into the drawing room, and searched for hours. They looked through everything on the shelf. They couldn't find the locket. All they found were a few dark magic items. They found a few Dark detectors as well, such as a foe glass, three secrecy sensors, and about twenty broken sneakoscopes, with just one that worked.

"Why can't we find it," Harry asked. "I know it's here unless." Just then Harry realized how he could find out where it was. "Lupin can you pry into minds of magical creatures?"

"Well yes, if they are not above the intelligence of Human beings." Lupin said. "I can read a house elves mind if that's what you were wondering." Lupin knew that's what he was wondering. He just had to know why Harry would ask a question like that.

"Good. Kreacher come here." Harry said. There was a loud crack, and a small brown figure appeared at Harry's feet.

"What does the blood traitor want now?" Kreacher mumbled.

"What was that?" Harry demanded.

Kreacher could not refuse a direct command from his master. "Kreacher was just wondering what Master wanted now? Can I help you with something?"

"Yes I want you to tell me if you know anything about a locket that was in here two years ago? It has the mark of Slytherin on it." Harry asked

"Yes I know of it, that thief stole it I watched him." Kreacher said.

"Do you know where he took it?" Harry asked.

"No." Kreacher said.

"Thank you; now return to the kitchens at Hogwarts." Harry said. And with another loud crack Kreacher disappeared.

"He was lying." Lupin said. "He took it himself, he hid it in that closet of his."

"Great Job Lupin," Harry said. "I appreciate it."

They then went and searched in the closet. There they found more and more dark detectors. All of these ones worked, Kreacher was able to tell the working ones from the ones that didn't. After about an hour of searching, they still hadn't found it. Just then Ron got an idea.

"Accio Slytherin's locket." He said. The locket zoomed to him from a tiny hole in the wall that none of them had noticed. The question was how did they destroy it now that they had it.

"Does anybody know how we destroy this thing? I mean when I destroyed the diary I just stuck the basilisk's fang in it." Harry said, "but now we don't have the fang and I don't think it would pierce the locket either."

"Well there is probably a spell we can use to destroy it." Hermione suggested.

Harry thought for a minute and realized that it was Hermione and she was probably right. "Well? What is the spell?" He asked.

"I don't know, but I may have a way we can find out." Hermione said. "I would suggest looking in the book you found back at Godric's Hollow."

"Of course it must tell us a way to destroy them." Ron said.

"Well thank you Lupin, we must go now," Harry said. "When we need your help we will be sure to contact you."

"Tell Tonks I say hi and that I miss her. Ask her to come visit me sometime."

They looked at their watches and were surprised by what time it was, it had taken them almost sixteen hours to find that stupid locket. They stepped into the fire, shouted Hogwarts, Headmistresses office, and disappeared. When they arrived back at Hogwarts, the sight that caught their eyes surprised them. There was somebody searching through McGonagall's office, but it wasn't McGonagall.

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**A/N - Please Review! I need the Feedback!**


	8. A Halloween Surpirse

**Chapter 8  
A Halloween Surprise**

Ron, Hermione, and Harry quietly pulled out their wands. They needed to be ready for anything. They had no idea who this could be, or why they were here. They had to suspect the worst. It had to be a spy, for Voldemort, and they had to be looking for anything that the order was doing.

Harry slowly walked toward this mysterious stranger. With his wand raised, pointed at the stranger's back he said, "Who are you, and why are you here?" To his surprise, when the stranger turned around it was the one teacher he hated more then Snape. It was Umbridge. "You," Harry called, "Why are you here."

"You know why I am here boy, Crucio" Umbridge cried. She had not wanted to kill him, just to make sure that nobody knew of her arrival. She could not take the chance of the Dark Lord finding out she had been caught. She wanted to leave the job to kill him to the Dark Lord. Harry was ready though he was able to remember the spell that Professor Hall had taught them.

"HAHISTSNA" Harry bellowed. A little Magical Mirror appeared in front of Harry; the spell hit it, and broke. There was just enough power in the Mirror to reflect this one curse. The curse was so strong the mirror could barely last.

When the spell hit Umbridge, she fell to the ground, screaming in pain. The sound alerted Professor Hall, who had been walking by the office at that very moment. Professor darted past the stone gargoyle, and up the moving steps and burst through the door, and yelled, "STUPEFY." It nailed Harry in the back, and he fell to the ground stunned.

When Professor Hall had realized what was going on, and what she had done, she stunned Umbridge, and then bound her. She then proceeded to revive Harry and find out what was going on.

"Explain, NOW." Professor Hall said, "Why did you use an unforgivable curse, which is the only thing that could have caused her that much pain."

"Professor I didn't" Harry began. "She tried to curse me, but I remembered what you taught me in class. The curse blocker."

"Did you really?" Professor Hall said, "Well in that case, ROHASHITO"

"HAHISTSNA" Harry called. The mirror appeared in front of Harry again, this time the mirror did not break, but held firm. The spell reflected back toward Professor Hall who then cried "HAHISTSNA CONTRAIG." This time, a mirror appeared in front of Professor Hall, but instead of sending the spell toward Harry, it absorbed it.

"Very good Harry, I believe you." Professor Hall said. "I knew how much you hated Umbridge; after all she did work for the Ministry that year. I wanted to make sure you did know the spell like you claimed. Let me take care of her." She then said "Levicorpus" and got into the fireplace, grabbed floo powder, and shouted, "Ministry of Magic, Aurors department." And in a magnificent display of emerald green flames Professor Hall and Umbridge disappeared.

A few minutes later, they reappeared in the Ministry of Magic. Wizards were wondering around aimlessly, there were dark detectors all about. The wizards had hardly noticed their arrival, until one in particular noticed them.

"Hey Louise, what brings you back here." Said a wizard with a slow deep voice. He was tall and bald. It was none other then Kingsley Shacklebolt. "Don't you have teacher stuff to be dealing with?"

"Yes, Kingsley, I do." She said, "in fact, that is what brings me here." At this, all the other Aurors became alert. If something to do with teaching had brought her back to the Aurors department, something had to have happened.

"Well what was it?" Said an Auror, who she didn't know.

"Well I was walking by Professor McGonagall's office," she started, "when I heard screaming. The screaming that can only be produced from the Cruciatus curse. I went up to investigate, and stunned the person who I believed had cast the spell. As it turned out, it was not the person I hit that had cast the spell, but this fowl excuse for a person." She said while indicating Umbridge.

"Well who did you stun?" Kingsley asked with curiosity.

"Harry Potter." She said. "When I realized I had stunned him, I bound her and revived him. He then told me what had happened. He had walked in and found her looking through McGonagall's office, and when he confronted her, she tried to curse him. Harry being the genius in Defense Against the Dark Arts that he his remembered the new counter curse I taught him, and reflected the spell."

At this everybody was surprised. They knew that this was very advanced magic, and were very surprised that a young schoolboy was able to pull it off.

"That's Harry for you," Kingsley said. "Always full of surprises."

"Well if you will excuse me I must get back to Hogwarts. Do with her as you will, but make sure she gets a trial." Professor Hall said, and with that she went back to the fireplace, grabbed floo powder, and shouted "Hogwarts: Headmistresses office" and disappeared.

When she returned to Hogwarts, she found the three friends still there. "What are you three still doing here?" She asked  
"We are waiting for McGonagall we must let her know we are back," said Hermione.

"Well I guess it is good that you are still here, I need to talk to you Harry." Professor Hall said, "And yes it is alright if your friends stay."

Harry wondered what she needed to talk to him about. He figured that it must be of where they were, and what happened.

"Harry, I am very impressed that you were able to use that spell, it is very advanced magic, they only teach it to you when you are older." Professor Hall began, "Not many wizards your age are able to do that spell so young, in fact there are only two other wizards that that are recorded to ever have performed that spell so young, and both of them are in this room."

"How is that Possible," Harry asked, "you are the only other one in the room besides Ron and Hermione, and they haven't done it yet. Well at least not in time to have it recorded."

"I never said they were still alive, look around you Harry, _look_ at the walls." Hall said.

Then it hit him, Dumbledore. Dumbledore the greatest wizard ever had to be the other one to perform that spell at his age. "Of course," Harry said, "Dumbledore was able to do It."

"Very good Harry, in fact it was he that taught me how to do it when I was your age." Professor Hall said. "I am truly impressed, I see why Dumbledore respected you so much at your age."

"Professor, if the magic is so advanced why did you teach it to us?" Ron asked

"Well when Dumbledore taught it to me, the first war was beginning; he taught the class hoping they would practice it hard, that one day we would be able to defend ourselves." Professor Hall said, "So I decided to take a leaf out of his book, and did what I thought he would do. Now if there are no more questions, I want the three of you to get to class."

"Just one more Professor, can you teach us that spell, which you used to block the reflection of your spell?" Harry said. He knew it sounded confusing, but hoped that Professor Hall would understand.

"Of course Harry," Professor Hall said. "First you must realize that this is only to block the spell, which has been sent back toward the caster, it will not work otherwise. The incantation as you heard me say is Hahistna Contraig. It absorbs any spell that was cast by the same wand."

"Thank you Professor." Harry said, "I will practice it."

"Now off to class, I will tell McGonagall of your arrival."

They walked slowly down toward the greenhouses, for Herbology. When they finally arrived there, they found out class was cancelled, due to the Whomping Willow needing care.

On their way back to the Gryffindor common room, Professor McGonagall intercepted them. "How come the three of you did not tell me you were back?" she asked. "Did you not think I needed to know you were back?"

"Well we found Umbridge in your office, when we returned. She tried to use the Cruciatus curse on Harry, but he blocked it using spells we learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts." Hermione said. "Professor Hall, heard the noise, and came and took her to the Ministry, she then said that she would tell you we were back."

"If this is all true, I will be gone for a few days. You will also need to be with a teacher at all times. I want you three to go and find Professor Tonks; she is your new Head of House. Tell her what is going on, and that she is to remain with you and the rest of the Gryffindors in the common room." McGonagall said. She then hurried off to her office to talk to Professor Hall.

The trio slowly walked to Tonks' office. On their way there, they realized that they still had no idea how to destroy the Horcrux. "We have to look through the book," Harry said. "That is the only way we can find out. After we tell Tonks what she needs to do, we will sneak to the library in the invisibility cloak, that way we can look for more books."

"Good idea," Hermione said. She was proud that it was Harry who had suggested the library as a way to help. She stared at him in amazement. _Harry had learned how useful the library was _Hermione thought.

When they reached Tonks' office, they told her what she needed to go and do, and led her up to the common room. When they got there, Harry and Ron ran upstairs to get the book. When they returned downstairs, they met with Hermione, then got under the invisibility cloak, and headed toward the library.

Upon arriving at the entrance to the library, the three took off the cloak, and entered. Hermione asked Madame Prince where they could find books on death, while Harry and Ron searched the books they already had.

"No luck," said Hermione, "all the books on death are in the restricted section."

"No luck here either," said Ron, "we looked through the book and it tells us everything about Horcruxes, except how to destroy them."

Hermione then decided to look through the book, because she was more observant and was sure they had missed something. She looked through it, and then she found it. "There is a page missing right here, this must be how to destroy it."

"Well Regulus said we could contact him if we had any questions." Harry said.

Weeks went by, and Halloween was approaching fast, when Harry realized that he didn't have a new chaser, to replace Katie. He decided to keep all of the team and to hold tryouts that weekend.

When the weekend finally came, tryouts started. "This is what is going to happen for tryouts," Harry told the team, "Ron, you will be the keeper of course, Ginny, Demelza, you will take turns being an opposing Chasers, and Peakes and Coote, will take turns being beaters. Each person will have three minutes to show us what he or can do. Got it?"

The tryouts began, and Harry watched, as many people did horrible. "Next," Harry said. As he said this, a familiar boy with mousy brown hair stepped up and said, "Alright Harry." It was none other then Colin Creevy.

"Okay Colin, you have three minutes, when I release the Quaffle, you may begin." Harry said. "This is just what I need," Harry thought, "another excuse for him to be around me."

Harry release the Quaffle, and watched as Colin darted around the field. He was surprised at how well he was doing, dodging bludgers at least. He attempted many goals, but was blocked by Ron every time. He also had the Quaffle stolen from him a few times by Ginny. About a minute and a half into it, Peakes finally hit him with a bludger, and knocked him unconscious. Harry went to make sure he was all right, and called for Dennis, Colin's little brother, to take him to the hospital wing.

"Alright I believe that is everybody," Harry said, "Thank you all for trying out, the team will discuss, and I will post who the new team member is tonight."

The team deliberated for a while, and finally decided on Dean Thomas. He had flown better then anybody else, and had scored eight goals within the first two minutes. He was great at dodging bludgers, and got past Ginny loads of times, and Harry was sure Ginny was playing her hardest, because she didn't seem too happy with him getting past her so many times.

When Harry arrived back at the common room, he posted Deans name on the board. Many first and second years got mad at Harry accusing him of choosing his friends. Harry who did not want to deal with it just said, "Yep your right, and next time you ask, I'll curse you."

The next day in Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Professor Hall helped to prepare her students for the test they would be having on Halloween, the coming Friday. "Today class, we are going to be working on spells that can help you identify if somebody is really who they say they are. I am going to close my eyes, and I want two students to come up and pretend to be the same person, by sounding like each other. I will then proceed to tell you who is real and who is fake. It is best to do this spell non-verbally." Professor Hall said.

When she closed her eyes, Neville and Ron got up. They decided on being Neville. They got up there and started talking like Neville. Ron was on Professor Hall's right and Neville on her left. Ron and Neville had a nice long conversation on plants, for about three minutes until Professor Hall finally said. "The real Neville is on my left."

The class was amazed; they were absolutely astounded by being able to do that. "Professor, how did you do that," Hermione asked.

"Oh it really is very simple," Professor Hall said. "It is a simple spell that takes a lot of focus, and magic to perform though. By simple I mean it is quite easy to remember. The spell is Distingisna. It allows you to sense any changes in voice quality, and appearance. The voice of the actually person, wont' change very much, and the appearance shouldn't change at all. The spell takes a lot of focus, and lots of magic. I don't expect any of you to do it as quick as I did, but work hard and I will see you on Friday."

Friday arrived, and Harry decided to call a DA meeting, before Defense Against the Dark Arts, in order to help them prepare. They meet at the Room of Requirement at nine o'clock. Three hours before their test at noon. The group practiced Distingisna for an hour and a half, and then Harry decided to teach them Hahistsna Contraig, as a surprise for the group. They practiced that for half an hour, and Harry was impressed to see that all of the older students, the sixth and seventh years, had done it successfully.

They arrived at class, that day after eating lunch together ready to decide who was the real person, and who was the fake. When they arrived, Professor Dippet, grabbed Harry, and gave him some polyjuice potion and a hair. I believe you know what to do. When we go back in, they will be decided who is who between us. I want you to do your best performance of me Harry.

Harry added the hair and then drank the potion a minute later he looked like Professor Dippet. Harry took a minute to work on the voice, and then they entered into the classroom. It was Hermione who was up first, Harry, and Professor Dippet, had a nice conversation about potions. After about twenty minutes Hermione finally decided who was who, and got an A.

Professor Hall then proceeded to take Hermione into the Hall, and gave her polyjuice potion. When they reentered, it was Neville who was up. It took Neville almost forty-five minutes before he finally decided, and was right.

One by one the students that had gone left the room and reentered with one of the professors, and each student did well. Ron did it if thirty minutes and was extremely excited. Finally it was Harry's turn; all the other Students had left, except for Ron and Hermione. When Harry was ready, two mysterious hooded figures walked in. They lowered their hoods, and to Harry's surprise, it was Percy Weasley. Harry was so surprised, that he almost forgot what he was doing. Harry concentrated hard, said the spell in his mind, and quickly decided who the real Percy Weasley was. Professor's Hall and Dippet just stared at Harry. Even wizards that have been Aurors for years hadn't done it that quickly. Harry had done it in only a minute, and that was with taking twenty seconds to recover from shock.

As the trio left, to return to the common room, they received a letter, from Mrs. Weasley, that Pig brought them.

_Ron it's Bill, something has gone wrong today. We are not sure what happened exactly, but we believe it has to do with being bitten by Greyback. Have Professor Dippet make some wolfsbane potion; it is the only thing I can think of that will help. Love Mum_

Ron began to rush off to Professor Dippet's office, when Harry stopped him.

"Wait," Harry said, "let me go get the Half-Blood Prince's copy of Advanced Potion Making. It will have a better way of making it."

They rushed off to the Room of Requirement, and grabbed the book, and then they took it down to Professor Dippet, showed him the letter, and gave him the book.

"I can have it ready in an hour, tell your mother that you will be there shortly." Professor Dippet said. True to his word, an hour later the potion was ready. Ron grabbed it, and led Harry and Hermione to McGonagall's office where they could travel by floo powder.

When they reached McGonagall's office, they showed her the letter, and without waiting got in the fireplace, grabbed floo powder and shouted "The Burrow"

When they arrived at the Burrow, Mrs. Weasley greeted them. "Bring the potion, this way, I will try to give it to Bill." They walked up the stairs, to Bill's room, where Mr. Weasley and the twins were keeping Bill at bay. Harry was immediately able to tell something was wrong. Bill wasn't acting right, he was acting like a werewolf, but he didn't look like one.

"I've got it Arthur," Mrs. Weasley said. "Let me try and give it to him. On three, I want everybody to stupefy him." With this comment, everybody drew their wands and pointed them at Bill. "…Three" a loud shout of "STUPEFY" filled the air around them, and jets of red light hit Bill. Mrs. Weasley then ran over to him, and gave him the potion. She and Mr. Weasley then proceeded to revive him.

When Bill recovered, they noticed he was back to normal, but decided to take him to St. Mungos, just in case. They also wanted to find out what happened. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, returned to Hogwarts, to tell everybody what had happened.

Ginny became very angry upon hearing the news, "Why did you not come and get me?" Ginny asked. "Bill is my brother too, and I care about him just as much as you do."

Ron turned red, but was able to say. "Sorry Ginny, I forgot, I was too worried to think about anything else."

Ginny soon forgave them. They then decided that they would again look for an answer on how to destroy the Horcruxes. Harry had sent a letter to Regulus, asking him to meet with them at midnight in the common room. They looked and looked, and found nothing, finally midnight came around, and they cleared the common room with another one of Fred and George's stink bombs.

"Harry," Ginny said, "who is this Regulus that we are meeting."

"Remember R.A.B.? This is him." Harry said. "He is Sirius' brother."

"REALLY?" Ginny said with excitement. She realized this meant, that her and Harry would be together longer, because she knew Harry would be able to destroy Voldemort, quicker then expected.

Regulus stepped out of the fireplace, and said, "You had a question, did you Harry." Just then Regulus noticed the other three people standing there. "Who are they, and why didn't you make them leave?"

"They are my best friends, and already know about the Horcruxes, and you." Harry said. "And yes, I did have a question, how do you destroy a Horcrux?"

"Well Harry, I thought you were smart enough to know that, after all you destroyed one already. All you have to do is destroy the item in question." Regulus said. "Now if that is all I will be going." He went back to the fireplace, stepped in and disappeared in a brilliant display of emerald green flames.

_Duh_ Harry thought, _why didn't we think of that?_

"So to destroy this locket, what would be the best way?" asked Ron.  
"Well I would say to melt it down, somebody go get their cauldron." Harry said.

Ron ran upstairs, retrieved his cauldron, returned downstairs, threw the locket in, and lit a fire underneath it. They allowed the locket, to melt for a while, and then when it was liquefied, they used a draining spell, to make it disappear, and with that, there were only three Horcruxes left. Harry knew where one was, and what two were. He hoped that he would soon be done.

Draco was sitting, at the kitchen table in Spinner's End. He was wondering, what he was going to do with Snape, now that he had mastered Occlumency, and was relatively okay at Legilmens.

"Draco," Snape spat. "You have done much better then I could have ever hoped, I will know be teaching you, more advanced Defense. I will also teach you some more advanced Offensive spells as well.

* * *

**A/N - Thanks to all my reviewers! )**


	9. A Few Questions

**Chapter 9  
A Few Questions**

Harry awoke the next morning bright and early. He had to get ready for Quidditch practice, and wanted to make sure he got a good breakfast. Harry got dressed, and then headed down toward the Great Hall. When Harry reached the Great Hall, he was surprised to find Ginny already at breakfast. He had woken up early enough to be able to eat, and get down to the Quidditch pitch, before any of the team had woken up. He wanted to come up with some play ideas, and thought a few minutes alone would help him.

"Why are you awake this early, Ginny?" Harry asked. "Practice isn't for another three hours."

"Well I just thought I could get an early start," Ginny said "I thought I could use a little bit of extra practice."

"Well I was going down to the pitch to come up with new plays for the team," Harry said, "I guess you can help me with them, and I would enjoy the company." Ginny looked ecstatic, nothing had happened between her and Harry since the night at the Burrow, and she was worried that Harry didn't like her anymore.

They ate breakfast together, and had a nice long discussion about R.A.B., the Horcruxes, and of course Quidditch. After they had finished eating, they headed down to the Quidditch Pitch. Harry noticed that Ginny was staring at him.

"What's up?" Harry asked. He always knew that when Ginny was staring at him she wanted to tell him something, but always restrained it.

"Oh, I'm just worried about how quidditch is going to go, with you and my brother periodically leaving." Ginny said.

"Well that's why I have a back up plan, we don't have to have all seven players, and just really the seeker is all that matters, right?' Harry said. "I have written you down as co-captain and as a backup seeker in case something happens to me. If it comes to it, we can always hold tryouts for extra chasers, and keepers."

"Really, that's a good idea, Harry." Ginny said with excitement, she was glad to hear that she was co-captain with Harry; it showed to her just how much Harry did care for her.

When they finally arrived at the Quidditch pitch, Harry began to show Ginny some ideas for some plays. After showing her about four plays, he realized that this isn't what he wanted to be doing; he then leaned over, and kissed Ginny.

They began to talk, about what was going to happen. What Ginny would do to help Harry with his quest was one of the many things they talked about. When the team finally arrived, they walked in on Harry and Ginny, who again had begun snogging.

"Would you two quit that?" Ron said, "She is my sister after all, and I don't like the idea of her snogging all over the place."

"Sorry Ron," Harry said. "Okay, we are here for practice, so let's practice. Our first match is in two weeks, we are facing Slytherin, who has had to replace their seeker, and we have no idea how good he will be so we must be prepared; it is going to be all of you against me and Ron. This will help all of us get better, me by trying to catch the snitch, before you guys score fifteen goals, Ron trying to stop you from scoring goals, the three seekers, trying to score the goals, and the two beaters trying to knock me, since they can't attack Ron, off of my broom."

They played five games, in which everybody got better and better. On the last game, Harry was able to catch the snitch, in only a minute, but in that time Ron had stopped five goals, and the chasers had put in four goals, and the beaters made Harry have to change direction quickly as he was about to grab the snitch a couple times. They were ready for anything.

Two weeks quickly passed, it was now getting close to the match, and for the seventh years school was becoming unbearable, they were getting so much homework to help prepare them for their N.E.W.T.'s that would be occurring at the end of the year. They had to be able to perform the nonverbal spell to determine if the person was really who they say they were in less than ten minutes for defense against the dark arts. Harry had no problem with this, as he had already done it in less than a minute. In Potions, they had to be able to brew a successful polyjuice potion, again which Harry had no trouble with seeing as how he, Hermione, and Ron had brewed one in their second year.

The worry's the homework brought to the seventh years because a little trouble for the quidditch team. Ron and Dean were too worried about their homework to play quidditch. This put the team down, two players for their match that evening, and without a keeper and a chaser, Harry wasn't sure if they could beat the Slytherin team, who had lost all of its seventh years, due to not wanting to come back without Malfoy there.

The team this year was made up of four large sixth years, and two fifth, and a fourth year, all of whom were large, except for the fourth year, who was smaller then little Dennis Creevey, meaning he would be able to fly quicker then Harry would be able too. With all this in mind, Harry called an emergency practice, and said that everybody must be there; he also told Hermione that she needed to come.

When the team arrived at the quidditch pitch a little later, they found Harry already there looking worried. "Okay," he said, "everybody on the Slytherin quidditch team is big enough to seriously injure us, except for their seeker, who is smaller then Dennis Creevey is, and we know he hasn't grown too much since his first year. This means, that we need to work quickly, and really well together to make sure that they don't beat us, especially, if Ron and Dean aren't going to play tonight."

"Sorry mate," Ron said, "we just aren't as good as you are in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and we need to have that spell mastered in less then ten minutes, by Monday and tomorrow is Sunday, not giving us much time. We just won't be able to do it."

"Yeah, Sorry," Dean added.

"Well you two since you won't be playing tonight, go back to the castle and study, I will let you know how the match turns out." Harry said. "Now team, in this match since we won't have a keeper, I want the beaters to focus only on that little Slytherin seeker, to more he has to dodge, the better chance I have of catching the snitch, I won't let us lose to Slytherin, I will do what ever is necessary to win, that is why Hermione is here."

Hermione, who had been wondering why she was there, became extremely frustrated, and said, "I WILL NOT HELP YOU CHEAT." and she stormed off back to the castle. Harry looked disgusted, "Why would she think I wanted her to help us cheat?" He said. "I was just going to ask her if she would help us practice a bit, by playing for Ginny, while Ginny played seeker against me. The more I face somebody, quick and small as a seeker, the better I can do."

"So," Ginny said, "are will still going to practice, or can we go eat before the match?"

"Let's go eat." Harry said, with disappointment in his voice.

After dinner, the team got their robes, and headed down to the pitch. When they arrived, they found that the Slytherin team was already on the field warming up. They watched as the team performed magnificently together, they had never seen a team play so well, especially not a Slytherin team. They chasers weaved back and forth passing the quaffle, and dodging bludgers with ease. The keeper, stopped every goal the chasers attempted to put by him, and the seeker zoomed so fast around the field, he was only a blur to the Gryffindor team.

The team became awfully worried; they had no idea how they were going to beat this team. This was obviously the best team Slytherin has ever had since Harry started at Hogwarts.

Madame Hooch blew her whistle, "Teams come here." She said. "I want all of you to play a nice clean game, captains shake hands. When your name is called, I want you to take your position, and then when I release the quaffle, the game will begin."

Harry shook hands, with the biggest guy on the Slytherin team. Then over the speakers came the voice of Luna Lovegood. "And now, introducing the Gryffindor team first the beaters, Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote. Next the chasers, Ginny Weasley, Demelza Robins, and Dean Thomas, who is not here, next the keeper, Ron Weasley, who is also not here, and last the seeker, and team captain, Harry Potter. Give it up for the Gryffindors. And now for the Slytherins," She said, and the crowd booed. "First the beaters, John Hussaout and Cario Groanin, now the chasers, Neil Creemy, Alan Winston, and the team captain, Nero Nimrod, and the keeper Abe Akhenaten, and last the seeker, Sekhem Coeur."

With that Madame Hooch blew her whistle, and the match began. She threw the Quaffle into the air, and it was immediately seized by Ginny. She darted past Creemy, and Winston, and then had the Quaffle stolen by Nimrod. Nimrod soared down the field, past the bludger sent at him by Peakes, gets past Demelza, and shoots, but missed thanks to Coote's well aimed bludger; it hit the quaffle in midair and knocked it down right to Ginny.

Harry circled around the pitch searching for a glimpse of the golden snitch, while keeping an eye on Coeur to make sure he wasn't going for the snitch. Groanin aimed a bludger right at Harry; Harry reacted quickly and dove out of the way. Coeur who had missed the bludger being sent at Harry flew towards him thinking Harry had seen the snitch; it wasn't but two seconds, before Coeur was on Harry's heels. Harry decided to keep diving, and right before he reached the ground, he pulled up, and turned and watched as Coeur crashed right behind him.

Over the crowd, Harry heard the voice of Luna Lovegood announce that the score was 20 to 80 Slytherin; Harry knew that if he didn't catch the snitch quickly the team wouldn't stand a chance of winning. Just then he saw it, the little flash of light down by the goals, that Ron would be guarding if he had been there. Harry just the realized that Coeur had seen it too. Harry took off after him and the snitch, and quickly gained on him. Just then Peakes sent a bludger right at Coeur and Harry, and they quickly dodged, but in that second Coeur had lost sight of the snitch. Harry flew quickly toward the snitch reached out his hand, and grabbed it in his hand.

"Gryffindor Wins," said the voice of Luna Lovegood, "190 to 180, that was the closest match I have ever seen, but I knew that Gryffindor could do it."

Relieved, Harry landed on the ground, and slowly made his way back to the castle, he reached the dormitory, and found Ron and Dean, still working on the Defense Against the Dark Arts spell, with Neville and Seamus.

"We lost," Harry lied. "I didn't know what the score was, and I caught the snitch, ten points, ten lousy points." Harry then noticing the reaction on the other's faces then began to laugh. "Fooled you I did, we won by ten points after I caught the snitch, would have been less if you had played mate."

"Well sorry mate," Ron said, "but we have all made great progress in the spell, Dean, Seamus, and I have all done it in just over nine minutes, and Neville has done it in eleven minutes, he is getting a lot better at it, but maybe we should have a DA meeting to practice it tomorrow."

"Okay," Harry said, "go tell Hermione, to schedule a meeting for tomorrow at nine o'clock in the evening. We will also work on other defensive spells from Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Draco, you have learned well and quicker then I could have hoped for." Snape said. "We will now give a test, to see how well you actually know your material; it is time for a duel."

"A duel?" said Malfoy. "Who am I going to be dueling? Surely you don't expect me to duel you Professor. I mean, how do you expect me to duel you, you have much more experience then I do."

"No Malfoy, you will not be dueling me, but you will be dueling somebody with a lot more experience then you." Snape said. "This is a person; you know really well, after all who else would you know any better."

"Who am I going to be dueling?" Malfoy asked. "My father is in prison, so surely I won't be dueling him."

"But what about your mother, Draco what about her?" Snape asked. "Surely you haven't forgotten about your mother?"

"Why would I duel her? It's not like she would want to hurt me, would she?" Draco asked.

"No she doesn't want to hurt you, which is why I have this, she wants to kill me."

"You will take this and one of my hairs and drink it, you will then duel your mother, and this will be a duel to the death. After all, the Dark Lord wants her dead now." Snape said.

"Why?" Draco asked with worry, "What has she done?"

"No time for questions now boy, drink that your mother should be here shortly." Snape said, "The only rule in this duel is no using the killing curse, everything else is legal. Now drink up."

Draco took the potion, and drank it, and took on the form of Severus Snape. He was now taller, with greasy black hair, and a hooked nose. Just then, Narcissa Malfoy walked through the door, just as the real Severus, pulled on an invisibility cloak, which the Dark Lord gave him.

The person who walked through the door next surprised everybody, it was none other then Wormtail. "I have been sent to watch this duel, to make sure no cheating goes on, after all the Dark Lord, needs you two, to prove yourself, who ever survives, will gain trust with the Dark Lord. Wands at the ready, now bow, and begin."

"SECTEMSEMPRA" cried Draco.

"PROTEGO" cried Narcissa.

"CRUCIO" cried Narcissa.

"HAHISTNA" cried Draco, and the little mirror, appeared in front of him, and reflected the spell back at Narcissa, but it was so powerful, that not only did the mirror break, but it let a little of the spell through, just enough to cause Draco a little pain.

"PROTEGO" Narcissa cried, but the spell was too powerful, and broke through she fell to the ground writhing in pain. This was just the chance Draco needed. He slowly walked over to his mother, and cried "SECTEMSEMPRA." Large cuts appeared all over Narcissa, she began bleeding badly.

"It is over." Said Wormtail, "Severus Snape is the declared the winner." Wormtail then left, just after the door closed, Draco heard the words. "AVADA KEDAVRA" and a shot of green light shot out of what appeared to be nowhere, but what Draco knew was the real Snape, and Narcissa Malfoy was dead.

"Why did you do that?" Draco asked.

"I did not think she should suffer anymore then was necessary." Snape stated. "Now I believe you asked me some questions earlier, if you wish to ask them again, I would now be glad to answer them for you."

"Yes I have a few questions." Draco said.

"Very well, you may ask them, and if you wish for a better explanation just ask." Snape said.

"Okay, my first question is, why did I have to duel my mother? I mean, what if I had died what would you have done?" Draco asked.

"I had to have you duel your mother, as a test, to see if you could do what needed to be done, to accomplish the task the Dark Lord gave you. You passed with flying colors; you did not hesitate, to attack your mother. I am very proud of you." Snape answered, "And I would not have let you die, if your mother ever got the advantage, nonverbal spells would have taken care of her. She would not have known that I cast them."

"Okay and why did the Dark Lord want my mother dead?" Draco asked.

"The Dark Lord wanted her dead, because she did not do as he asked, for the second time she has failed him now." Snape said.

"Well, what did, or didn't she do, to make him want her dead?"

"She refused to break your father out of Azkaban." Snape said. "She told him that, it was too dangerous, and she would not do it, she told him, that if she went there she would be killed by Aurors."

"And what was the other time she failed him?" Draco asked.

"She failed him again, last year, when she forced me to interfere with your task, the Dark Lord told her not to get anybody else involved, but she couldn't let anything happen to you." Snape said.

"Why didn't the dark lord, just kill her himself?" Draco asked.

"He didn't think she was worth his time, and he thought that she might be useful to him, so he granted her the choice to duel anybody she wanted, it was a duel to the death. When she chose me, the dark lord contacted me and told me what was going on." Snape said, "He then told me I must not lose, that she was to die. That is why I would not let you die in that duel."

"Professor, why did you mention something about my task, from the Dark Lord? Wasn't that just a dream?" Draco asked.

"No, Draco it wasn't a dream, the Dark Lord really did ask you to kill Regulus Black. I did not want you or your mother to worry, so I bewitched you to believe that it was a dream. I am sorry Draco." Snape said, "But what you did today, proves that you are ready to accomplish the task he has set for you. Well almost ready at least, I still want to train you for a while."

Draco immediately became frightened. He didn't think that he would be able to kill somebody, after all, he wasn't the one that killed his mother, it was Snape. He wasn't ready to kill, he wasn't powerful enough, or angry enough to cause anybody real harm.

"What else are you going to teach me?" Draco asked.

"I will get to that later, but know I must test you on the other things that I have taught you to make sure you are as well defended as I hope you are." Snape said. "I want you to attack me, with any spell that you see fit, except for the killing curse, because there is no defense against it."

"But why?" Draco asked.

"You will find out soon enough, now attack me." Snape spat.

"SECTEMSEMPRA" Draco yelled.

"HAHISTNA" Snape bellowed, and the little magical mirror appeared in front of him, and reflected the spell back at Malfoy, and then the mirror broke.

"HAHISTNA CONTRAIG" Malfoy said. And a little mirror appeared in front of him, and absorbed the spell.

"Good," Snape said, "Now attack me again, but keep the mirror ready. This time use a different spell."

"ROHASHITO" Draco said.

"HAHISTNA" Snape once again bellowed, the spell reflected back at Malfoy, and the mirror did not break. "Now Draco, get that mirror up."

Draco did as he was instructed, and lifted the mirror in front of him, and it absorbed the spell, but it also did something strange, it began to glow. Draco dropped the mirror out of fear, and it fell to the ground and shattered.

"I see I have more to teach you." Snape said, "If you had not dropped that mirror, you would have been able to send both those spells back at me with another simple spell. This spell, releases spells from that magical mirror, when it begins to glow. The spell is "RELEASO HAHISTNA" it is best to do it nonverbally though. We will work on more later, now one last test before we retire to bed for the night. Remember the spell I taught you, that allows you to determine if somebody is really who they say they are? Well you must be able to determine who the real person is, in less then five minutes. That way when performing the spell for real, you can tell just from talking to them for a little bit."

"Okay Professor, I will do my best." Draco said.

The doors then opened, and two hooded figures walked through the door. They walked over to Draco and Snape, and then they lowered their hoods. Draco was surprised to see that is was two Crabbe's. He knew one was the real Crabbe, and the other was Goyle. In his mind, he said the spell, and finally decided who the real Crabbe was, after only two minutes.

"Very good Draco, I am very surprised, most wizards can't do it in less than ten minutes, but since I put you through vigorous training, I guess I should not be surprised." Snape stated with glee. "Now retire to bed Draco, you need to be ready for what is going to happen tomorrow, and don't forget to close your mind."

Tomorrow, the Dark Lord was going to be coming to check on Draco's training. When Draco received the task, Snape asked the Dark Lord, if he could train Malfoy so that he would be better prepared, to defeat black. The Dark Lord obliged to his request, and now wanted to make sure everything was going well. If something went wrong, Snape would be removed from teaching Malfoy, and the Dark Lord would have to teach Malfoy a lesson.

Back at Hogwarts, Harry Potter awoke startled. There was no way, what he saw was real, there was no way that Draco Malfoy, would have attacked his mother, there was no way, that Snape would be teaching him spells to help him. Harry knew this meant trouble for him; he would now have to fight a well trained Malfoy, in his quest to defeat the Dark Lord. He had to train the DA as good as Snape had trained Malfoy, or they could lose.


	10. Draco's Mistake

**EvilGirlChild - Thank you for picking up on my spelling of Hahistna... I hadn't realised, so from now I'm going to make sure that it is HAHISTNA every time :)**

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**Chapter 10  
Draco's Mistake 

Harry Potter quietly got out of bed, and ran to Professor McGonagall's office. There was only one person Harry could think of, that would be able to help him with his dream; he had to get to Grimmauld Place. There he would be able to talk to Lupin, and tell him what he saw, and ask him what he thought it meant. After all since Dumbledore was dead now, Lupin was the only adult Harry still felt close to.

He ran down the hall, to the stone gargoyle, which marked the entrance into the headmistresses office. He reached the stone gargoyle and shouted "transfiguration," and the gargoyle sprang to life. Harry ran up the stairs, and into Professor McGonagall's office. I'm going to Grimmauld Place Harry yelled, be back before lunch. He then climbed into the fireplace, grabbed some floo powder, shouted "Number 12 Grimmauld Place," and disappeared in a brilliant display of emerald green flames.

"Lupin" Harry called when he reached the kitchen of number 12 Grimmauld Place, "Lupin I need to talk to you." There was no answer, so Harry decided to have a look around the house to see if he could find anybody, all the time calling for Lupin or any member of the order that he thought might know where Lupin was. He gave up searching after an hour and returned to the kitchen to wait.

After about thirty minutes of waiting, Harry heard a noise coming from the drawing room upstairs. The noise kind of worried him, because when he had been in there only forty minutes ago, there was nothing in there, so what could be in there now he wondered. Harry drew out his wand, and slowly went upstairs to the drawing room without making noise, and making sure not to wake up Sirius' mother. When he arrived at the door, he put his ear to it to listen for any noises. It was silent again, so Harry with his wand raised just in case, opened the door, and found nothing. Relieved, he went back downstairs to the kitchen.

When he arrived back in the kitchen he found Mad Eye Moody, sitting at the table talking to Bill and Charlie Weasley. Harry didn't get a chance to hear much of what they were talking about, because when the door opened, they became silent and raised their wands toward the door.

"Why do you have your wands pointed at me?" Harry asked, "Is there something going on that you don't trust who comes through this door?"

"Well lately, we have been hearing noises from the drawing room, but by the time we get up there it is silent again, and there is nothing in there, and what's worse is Mad Eye can't even detect anything with his magical eye." Charlie said

"We heard a noise up there just a few minutes before you walked in the door, so we thought you might have been whatever was causing that noise coming to get us." Bill said. "Why are you here anyways, are you giving us to okay to attack?"

"No I'm not, but I am here looking for Lupin, do you know where he is?" Harry asked. "It's really important that I find him soon."

"Lupin right now is out on duty for the order, he is helping guard the death eaters in Azkaban, every week we send a new person disguised through poly juice potion to be a guard in the prison." Mad Eye said, "the Order are the only people who know other death eaters that are not in prison, so if we see some walking in we can stop them. We have also trained ourselves very carefully, to see if somebody is disguising themselves."

"When will he be back?" Harry asked.

"He will be back at midnight tomorrow, at which time I will go to replace him." Charlie said.

"I'll be back tomorrow then to see Lupin at midnight." Harry replied. "I must go now, see you all later." He then went over to the fireplace, grabbed some floo powder, stepped in and shouted "Hogwarts, Headmistresses office." And he disappeared in emerald green flames.

"Back already Potter, you have only been gone for two hours, I didn't expect you back nearly this soon." Professor McGonagall said.

"I wasn't able to find who I was looking for," Harry said, "turns out they are on order duty."

"I take it you were looking for Remus then? Why were you looking for him?" McGonagall asked.

"Earlier, he told me if I ever needed help with anything to come to him, and I needed his help for something that was pretty urgent, but it can wait until midnight tomorrow when he returns." Harry responded. "Well I'm going to return to the common room, see you later."

Harry returned to the common room and found Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, and told them what he saw. He could tell by the looks on their face, that they were just as surprised as he was that he was able to see that.

"How were you able to see that?" Hermione asked, "It's not like your mind is connected to his like it is to Voldemort's."

"I'm not sure how, but Snape had taught him Occlumency, so Malfoy must have made some mistake to let me see it." Harry said. He now began to wonder: maybe he was connected to Malfoy through some way after all. He just didn't know how.

"This is really big Harry, have you told anybody else yet?" Ginny asked.

"Well I tried to go tell Lupin this morning, but he is on business for the Order." Harry said, "And he won't be back until midnight tomorrow. Until then, I say we try and find another Horcrux. Ron run upstairs and get the book, then meet us down in the secret place." Their secret place was none other then Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

Ron finally arrived at the bathroom, five minute later. They frantically began reading the book, for any other clues on Horcruxes, besides the ones that they already had, they found out that a wizard that usually makes a horcrux, will not only put it in a place that he is familiar with, but he will set up barriers to protect it, barriers that only a powerful wizard would be able to get through, one that would be able to hear in their mind what the barrier was asking for. Harry then thought of when he and Dumbledore went to the cave, and he remembered Dumbledore leaning toward the wall, and then like he knew exactly what the wall was asking for, he cut his arm and dropped blood on it.

This means, that we must learn to control our magic better, as to be able to tune into magical noises that only powerful wizards can here. Well there is only one person alive that we know can help us learn, I'll send a letter to him tonight, and ask him if he will teach us.

That night after the DA meeting, at which Harry had pushed everybody so hard, that they had mastered the trio spell, HAHISTNA, HAHISTNA CONTRAIG, and RELEASO HAHISTNA, Harry wrote a letter to Regulus, asking him if he could teach them how to fine tune their magical senses.

Draco woke up that morning ready for anything, his lessons with Snape had been exhausting, and on the days when Snape said it would be a long day, it nearly killed him. Snape had not told him what was going to happen, he had not told him that the Dark Lord was coming to check on them, he had not told him that he had volunteered to get him ready for this task.

"Draco, come here there is somebody here that wants to see you." Snape said

Draco hurried into the room, looked around and was surprised so see the Dark Lord there. When he realized he was there, he hurried over bowed down, and kissed the hem of his robes. He then stood up and waited for his master to speak.

"Draco, I hear that you are doing much better in the lessons that Snape here has been giving you. I am correct to say that?" Voldemort said.

"That is what Snape tells me as well, so I would say you are correct." Draco replied

"Would you mind if I got to see what he taught you for myself?" Voldemort asked.

"No master, but you should know he hasn't yet prepared me much to attack yet, only to defend, he tells me that Regulus was one of your best Death Eaters when it came to attacking." Draco said

"He would be correct to tell you that, but nonetheless, I would still like to see how you fair in a little duel." Voldemort said, "No Draco, you will not be fighting me, but you will be fighting one of my death eaters. Nobody will die in this duel; I just want to see if the student has surpassed the teacher yet."

"Me?" Snape asked, "You didn't tell me that I was going to be dueling him, if I had known that I would have rested better, I was convinced he was going to be dueling you."

"That is what you get for your ignorance Severus. You will duel the boy, or you will duel me." Voldemort said. "Now that all of that is settled, wands at the ready, now bow, and begin."

"ROHASHITO" Snape bellowed

"HAHISTNA" Draco replied, and the tiny little magical mirror appeared in front of Draco, and reflected the spell back towards Snape.

"HAHISTNA CONTRAIG." Snape responded, and the magical mirrors appeared in front of him and absorbed the spell, he then placed the mirror into his pocket.

"CRUCIO" Draco said, and it hit Snape square in the chest as he was placing the mirror in his pocket. Snape fell to the ground and started screaming from pain.

After a few seconds, he got up and angry he yelled "SECTEMSEMPRA," but Draco was ready for this.

"HAHISTNA" he called, but that is exactly what Snape was waiting for, Snape quickly pulled the mirror out of his pocket, and held it up in front of him, and the mirror absorbed the spell, but to his surprise, the mirror did not start glowing, it was not powerful enough yet he thought.

"FURNUNCULUS" Draco called.

Snape wondered why Draco would use such a weak spell, but still screamed "HAHISTNA" then he realized what he had done, Draco had the same plan that he did.

"HAHISTNA CONTRAIG," Draco bellowed, and a proud smirk came on his face. He was getting close to being able to defeat Snape.

"CRUCIO" Snape said.

"PROTEGO" Draco responded, and the spell was blocked.

The Dark Lord watched all this, and was pleased with how much defense that Snape had taught Draco. He noticed that not once has Draco been hit by a spell, and Snape had been hit once. Then he realized "Severus, do your best, or I will kill you." The Dark Lord said.

"I'm trying to teach him, while we duel so he will improve." Snape replied just then, Draco sent another spell flying at Snape who again said "HAHISTNA" and reflected the spell back at Draco. Draco raised his mirror, and absorbed the spell, and then the mirror began to glow.

Snape knew this was his chance to teach Draco, what he wanted to teach him. "VERITOPUS" Snape said, just as Draco yelled "RELEASO HAHISTNA." The spells hit it midair, and then they turned into a jet of water, that couldn't hurt anybody.

"Wait what happened?" Draco asked.

"There is only one way to defend yourself against your opponent when they are releasing the spells trapped inside there magical mirror. It is by the spell that I yelled it turns the jet of spells, into whatever the caster is thinking of, besides another spell of course." Snape said.

"Well if you were holding a spell back on me Professor, then I will show you a spell that I have been working on myself, I would like to see you defend against it." Draco said, "SPEBEREL" and a jet of violent orange and purple light flew from the end of Draco's wand.

"HAHISTNA," Snape yelled, but it didn't work, the mirror broke and nothing was reflected back at Draco. The Dark Lord, who was watching, realized that Draco had invented a spell that was as strong as the killing curse. The Dark Lord then proceeded to mutter something under his breath, and pointed his wand right in front of Snape, and an Inferi appeared in front of Snape.

Draco's spell hit the Inferi right in the chest, the Inferi then fell to the ground, and began acting like it had been hit by the Cruciatus Curse, but it also began to get large cuts all over its body like SECTEMSEMPRA. The Dark Lord again muttered something, and the Inferi disappeared, then both the Dark Lord, and Snape stared at Draco.

"Draco, you have made another unforgivable curse," the Dark Lord said, "and you didn't tell me you were working on it. You have made a horrible mistake Draco; you should know that any spell as powerful as that would need to be reported to me. I am afraid I must punish you, and what better to do then with your own curse."

"Wait master," came Severus's voice, "We still have a duel to finish."

"No you don't, I saw all that I needed to see, Draco is as good at defense as you are I am very happy with this." The Dark Lord said. "Now Draco, I promise I will heal you if you tell me when you made this curse."

"I started to work on it, when you asked me to kill Dumbledore; I thought it would be just the spell to do it." Draco said.

"Draco, since you waited so long to tell me, I will have to teach you a lesson." The Dark Lord said. "SPEBEREL" the Dark Lord yelled, and the jets of violent orange and purple light flew from his wand. Draco fell to the ground writhing in pain, and cuts appeared all over him and he began bleeding. The Dark Lord let this continue for a few minutes, and then healed him with a spell that he muttered under his breath. "Now Draco, I hope you know that you need to tell me everything that you come up with, anything that will help me defeat Potter."

"Sorry master, it won't happen again." Draco said.

"I must go now; I have important business I need to take care of." The Dark Lord said, and then he apparated out of sight.

"Draco," said Snape angrily, "why did you not tell me you were working on a spell, if I had known, I would have told you not to use it in front of the Dark Lord EVER."

"Sorry Professor, it was going to be a surprise for when I attacked Regulus, but since you had hidden a spell from me, I thought I would use my spell on you." Draco said

"I didn't hide the spell from you; we hadn't gotten around to it yet. You still should have known better, you could have killed me, then how would you have defeated Regulus, I know you still don't have the power to kill, I could see it in your eyes when you dueled your mother, you were sorry you used the spell you did immediately, and the same when you just dueled me." Snape said.

"I can too kill," Draco said, "Why else would I have invented a spell to cause horrible pain, and put them near death."

"You can kill can you?" Snape said, "Then do it." Snape conjured up a flock of birds. "If you can kill, kill them."

Draco raised his wand, "AVADA KEDAVRA" he said, and a jet of green light flew from the end of his wand and hit the bird. But nothing happened, the bird just kept on flying.

"I told you, you weren't able to kill, you invented that spell as an alternative." Snape said, "Just be glad the Dark Lord doesn't know that you can't even kill anybody, because if he did he would kill you."

Just then, they felt a burning on their arm, the dark mark was burning red. Instantly they were apparated to where the Dark Lord was and found themselves in a graveyard. It was in the graveyard, where the Dark Lord, had regained his body, just two and a half years earlier, it was darker this time, but of course ever since Voldemort's return, everything has been getting darker.

"My loyal Death Eaters, those of you who are here, are the ones that have not been put in Azkaban or killed since my return." The Dark Lord said. "I have called you all here, because Malfoy here has invented a new spell, another unforgivable curse, and I think to best demonstrate it, Mr. Malfoy should use it himself. McNair step into the circle, Malfoy you as well. Now McNair, I want you to use any and all defensive spells you can think of to stop Malfoy's curse. Malfoy, I want you only to use the curse you have created."

Malfoy and McNair stepped into the circle; they raised their wands and then bowed. "SPEBEREL" Draco shouted. The jets of purple and orange light erupted from the end of his wand.

McNair muttered every defensive spell he could think of, but still the curse broke though. It was as strong as the Killing Curse, it just didn't kill people. The spell hit McNair square in the chest. He fell to the ground and writhed in pain, as large gashes appeared all over his body.

"As you can all see, Malfoy here has invented a spell that combines the Cruciatus Curse, with that of the spell Snape invented in his youth SECTEMSEMPRA." The Dark Lord began, "I just thought you all should learn this spell, as I am sure it will be useful to you. Now Malfoy, finish of McNair."

"I can't master." Draco replied "He is de…"

"And why not?" The Dark Lord interrupted. He then turned to look at McNair, and realized that he was already dead. "Your spell is more powerful then I thought at first Malfoy, this pleases me." But it wasn't Malfoy's spell that killed McNair, it was McNair himself, he was tired of suffering, and when the Dark Lord said finish him off, he used the killing curse on himself.

Harry awoke the next morning, and went to breakfast, with his dream on his mind. _Did Malfoy really invent a new unforgivable curse? And was it really that powerful? _Classes that day were going to be unbearable for most of the seventh years, that day was going to be the day they were tested on the spells they had learned. Harry wasn't extremely worried and neither was the rest of the DA, but all the other seventh years were frantic.

At midnight that night, he got Ron, and Hermione, and the three of them went to McGonagall's office, and told her they were going to see Lupin. "That won't be necessary," McGonagall said, "I have told him you were looking for him, and he is coming here, you can talk to him in my office, I will leave if you want me to."

"Yes Professor, I would rather have you leave." Harry said. So McGonagall went to bed in the room behind her office. A few minutes later Lupin appeared in the fireplace. "Hi Lupin." Harry said.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Lupin said, "It is about your task?"

"Well sort of." Harry said, "Part of it is, and part of it isn't." He then told Lupin of the dreams he had had about Malfoy, and realized he forgot to tell Ron and Hermione the second one.

"Well I'm not sure what to do, but this will help the order, we now know, that they have created another unforgivable curse." Lupin said. "Now we can spend time on preparing something to block that spell. Thank you for telling me this Harry. Now you said part of it was helpful to your mission, which part was that?"

"I haven't told you yet." Harry said, he then recounted everything he found out about the horcruxes through that book, and where he thought one was, and he asked if there was a way to tune in your senses to magical frequencies.

"Magical frequencies?" Lupin said puzzled. "I have to say I have no idea what you are talking about. Unless you mean being able to know what something wants, like the barriers that Voldemort set up to guard his Horcruxes." Lupin of course knew this is what Harry really meant, for he had used Leglimens to see into Harry's mind.

"That is exactly what I mean." Harry said.

"Well unfortunately, only a few wizards can do it, and I am not one of them, all I know is it takes years of practice." Lupin said.

"Well thank you anyway Lupin." Harry said disappointed

"Harry," Lupin said, "Who is it that you sent a letter to asking to teach you how to do it, and how do you know that he can."

"I sent the letter to Regulus Black, also known as R.A.B. and Sirius' brother. I know he can do it, because he has done it before. Don't ask anything else about it; I'm not supposed to tell you." Harry said.

"Regulus? It can't have been him." Lupin said

"And why not?" Harry asked.

"Because he is dead, remember what Sirius told us, he said that his brother had been killed by Death Eaters." Lupin said. "He betrayed them, so Voldemort had him killed."

"But he didn't die, it was staged. I set it up, and he went into hiding, I sent a letter to him that night that I died." Came the familiar voice of Dumbledore.

"Staged? Why would you stage his death?" Lupin said.

"Because I knew he would be helpful in defeating the Dark Lord. He was the one that told me about the Horcruxes, and from what Harry has said, he has been on a quest to destroy them." Dumbledore replied.

"Very well, I believe you, but there is nothing more that I can do so I will return back to headquarters." Lupin said. He then stepped into the fireplace, grabbed some floo powder shouted "Number 12 Grimmauld Place" and disappeared in emerald green flames.

"Harry you better get back to your common room, I believe there is an owl from Regulus waiting for you. Now quickly go." Dumbledore said, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione went back to the common room.

Upon reaching the common room, they found a tawny owl, who when Harry walked in, flew over to him and dropped a letter by his feet. Harry quickly opened the letter and read.

_Dear Harry, _

_There is not much I can teach you about that certain thing, unless you are in my presence, and since it is not safe for me to stay at Hogwarts for the moment, I will need you to come to me, and only you. I will let you know where I am with my next owl, I expect to see you at midnight the night you receive that owl._

_Your Friend_  
_R.A.B._


	11. The Return

Chapter 11  
The Return

Harry stared at the letter for a while, and then he told Ron and Hermione that they would not be able to come with him. Disappointed, Ron and Hermione went up to their dormitories and went to bed. Harry on the other hand decided to stay up for a while and think about which of the three suspected rooms was the most likely for the Horcrux to be in, and if it was even in Hogwarts at all.

"I know he had the opportunity, and I know he had many secrets while here" he said thinking out loud. "I also know that Dumbledore thinks there is one here as well, I just don't know where it is, what it is, or how to get past all the barriers. Well let's think for a minute and see if I can narrow it down." Harry then pulled out the book, and turned to the page where the Horcruxes were written. He examined it carefully.

Voldemort's believed Horcruxes  
1.A Diary  
2.A ring from his grandfather  
3.Hufflepuffs cup  
4.Slytherins locket  
5.Something that belonged to Ravenclaw or Gryffindor  
6.Nagini (his snake)

He had highlighted the ones that were already destroyed, and now wondered where the other three were, and which one was in the castle, if it was there at all. "Well, it is obviously not Nagini," He thought, "She is with him all the time, so I wonder if he got something of Gryffindor's, or Ravenclaw's? Well I don't think he would have gotten anything of Gryffindor's, after all, Gryffindor was the wizard that never got along with Slytherin, so I don't think he would have taken something from him. So it must be something of Ravenclaw's, but the question is what."

Harry decided that he would go and ask Professor Flitwick the next day, and ask him if he knew anything that was owned by Ravenclaw that would be really valuable if somebody got their hands on it? He thought about this for a while and decided it would be very suspicious, like Harry was going to try and steal something of Ravenclaw's. He finally thought of a better solution, he would ask Hermione if there was anything in Hogwarts, A History. After all, he and Ron had still never read it, and probably never would.

After a good nights sleep, Harry awoke and ran down to meet Hermione in the Great Hall for breakfast. As he reached the entrance to the Great Hall, Hermione was just leaving. "Hermione," he called, "I need to talk to you, about that thing we're doing." He said, because of all the other students that were around, and he didn't want to give it away. "Meet me in our secret place at noon today, right after class."

"Alright," Hermione called back. "Should I bring Ron?"

"No, I don't think he will be interested in this part, you know his feelings on reading." Harry responded.

"Yes I do," Hermione laughed.

After Defense Against the Dark Arts that day, Harry proceeded down to Moaning Myrtles bathroom. Upon his arrival, he was surprised to find that Hermione was already there reading for the who knows how many times, Hogwarts, A History.

"Okay, what exactly are we doing, and why did I need to bring this" Hermione asked indicating the book she was reading.

"Well," Harry began, "I was wondering if there was ever mention of anything that the founders found very valuable, I think that Voldemort has a Horcrux that was something for Ravenclaw's but I have no idea what it would be. So I was hoping you could find something in the book about it."

"Well Harry, there were many things that Ravenclaw valued, but none of them were physical possessions. So, it either isn't in the book or she didn't have one, but it did mention something of Gryffindor's a dagger. Gryffindor treasured that more then his sword, it's an exact smaller replica of the sword, and hasn't been seen for almost 50 years." Hermione said 

"So it is something of Gryffindor's I will have to figure out where and when Voldemort got a hold of it." Harry said. "Thanks Hermione that's all I needed. Just then a familiar tawny owl appeared and dropped a letter on Harry's head.

_Harry, I will be waiting for you in hogsmede, in the place where you first knew my brother was my brother. See you tonight.  
RAB_

"It's from Regulus" Harry said, I'm going to be gone tonight, I need to go tell McGonagall." Harry headed through the corridors to McGonagall's office and reported to her that he would be going to the shrieking shack that night, and wasn't sure when he would be back.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts that day, they were learning more and more defensive spells, and like always, Harry was the class "test dummy". This wore Harry out even more so then usual even though he wasn't hit a single time by anybody's curses. He was a master at every defensive spell he ever learned. Hermione could sense Harry was hiding something, and he was. Harry is working on a super defensive spell that can stop Draco's new spell.

That night just before midnight, Harry headed out to the shrieking shack to meet with RAB. He took his invisibility cloak and a stick to poke the knot to immobilize the whomping willow.

As he wanders around the shrieking shack he remembers the night he first met his godfather, and is surrounded by more memories of his godfather. As Harry enters the room where he first found his godfather on the night that Pettigrew escaped, he is greeted by Regulus.

"Ah Harry, just on time" Regulus began, "I will teach you all that I can about picking up on your magical frequencies, but I want to test how well they are as of this moment. Hand me your wand." Harry turned over his wand and Regulus threw it across the room then summoned creatures to surround it which would only attack when people got to close to them. "retrieve your wand Harry"

Harry ran over to the corner reached out to grab his wand as one of the creatures jumped up and bit his hand. Harry pulled his hand back in pain wandless. He tried many times and always ended up wandless. "How do I do it Regulus" Harry asked.

"Well with magic of course." Regulus responded.

"But how can I do magic without my wand?" Harry asked.

"It's all dealing with magical frequencies surrounding magical objects, and your ability to control them, and know what they want. You remember when you set the python loose in the zoo? You didn't have a wand then, and without knowing it, you used the magical frequencies around you to set it free. All the magic you did without your wand before you knew you were a wizard was with magical frequencies. Most wizards lose touch with these after training with wands for most of their life, but a few, such as myself and Dumbledore, never forgot how to do it. And yes Harry the Dark Lord never forgot either." Regulus stated. "Now use feelings like when you did magic before you had your wand, all it takes is very powerful emotion and the natural magic within you and the object's will react causing the will of the things to be done."

Harry struggled with this for a moment, and thought very strong emotion, like my patronus. Harry then thought of an extremely happy thought and concentrated really hard on what he wanted, and his wand began to move on the ground which startled the creatures and the jumped on it. Harry lost his focus and still ended up wandless.

"That was way better for a first attempt of anybody that has forgotten that I've seen in a long time. But of course seeing as who your father was it shouldn't be that surprising. Keep trying then we will move on once you get the wand."

Harry again concentrated really hard this time with a new goal, to make the creatures disappear. He got one to disappear and still had three more to deal with. He realized it would take awhile and eventually after about an hour he had all but one of the creatures gone. Then he realized he could get rid of the last one by thinking of an even stronger thought. It took two hours to get rid of that last one, who was bigger then the others were. After he was gone Harry walked over and picked up his wand.

"Do you know how you made them disappear Harry?" Regulus asked.

"Well I was thinking of the spell to make them go away along with the thought that provided me with the emotion powerful enough to do it." Harry said

"Exactly Harry you can perform simple spells without a wand if the emotion is powerful enough." Regulus said, it is really simple if you concentrate.

"Only simple spells?" Harry asked, hoping that he could do any spell without his wand, for a surprise attack on Voldemort.

"Unfortunately yes, Harry, we can only do simple spells without our wand, like you and your vanishing spell, and your attempted summoning charm. Let's move on to the next test Harry" At this Regulus created a door in the wall. "Now Harry try to get through this door"

Harry figured this would be simple; he would just use the spell alohomora to unlock the door. He tried this and it didn't work. He tried every spell he could think of to destroy or unlock the door and nothing worked, hours went by and nothing happened.

"Harry, don't just try to unlock or destroy the door, listen to what the door wants. Pick up on its magical frequency." Regulus finally said. So Harry started to concentrate really hard on picking up the signals around him. He could sense things he never sensed before, and then it hit him what the door wanted was a knut, that was it. So Harry reached in his pocket and found a little bronze coin and took it and placed it in the keyhole where the key would normally go. The door then swung open and Harry saw something he hadn't seen in years, the mirror of Erised. Harry quickly aligned himself in front of the mirror and looked in it and he was surprised of what he saw. It was him going into a familiar statue of which he also hadn't seen in years. He immediately recognized it as the chamber of secrets and knew what it meant.

"Great job Harry, you did it, and I take it by the way you reacted you saw something important in the mirror" Regulus said.

"Yes I did, and I would like you to come with me, I think I know where one of the Horcruxes is, I can sneak you into Hogwarts with me, and we can go find it together."

"I'd love to Harry, but I'd rather not take the risk, go get Ron and Hermione before you go though you will need the help I'm sure, so get going."

Harry rushed back out of the shrieking shack through the secret passage and reached the outer edge, hit the knot on the whomping willow and ran into the Great Hall where he knew Ron and Hermione would be having lunch, and he could join them for a bit, after all he spent about twelve hours with Regulus last night. When he arrived in the Great Hall, he looked around and spotted Ron sitting at the table eating lunch, but didn't see Hermione. He ran over to Ron, and joined him for dinner and filled him in on what had happened.

"Hermione is in the library studying" Ron said "Let's go get her and go get the Horcrux."

They ran off to the library and found Hermione studying and they filled her in on what Harry had seen they told her they were going to go and get it and they would like her help. She agreed and they headed off to the chamber of secrets. Hermione who had never been in the chamber of secrets before was extremely frightened. Once inside the chamber they crawled through the hole in the walland passed therocks that had fallen when Harry and Ron were in there five years ago. They headed into the chamber where they saw the dead basilisk and the statue of Slytherin. Just then they saw something moving inside the Statue, in a hole Harry hadn't noticed before. Suddenly a flash of green light lit up the cavern.

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**A/N: I know this is shorter than most of the other chapters but I'm saving some things for the next chapter please review!**


	12. Deep Inside

**Chapter 12  
Deep Inside**

"What do you think that was Harry?" Ron asked.

"What else could it have been, this means somebody else is here, we must be careful." Harry responded.

Slowly they advanced closer and closer to the hole in the statue. As they got closer they went off to one side and they didn't believe what they heard.

"Peter, I thought I told you not to kill him." Came a cold shrill voice. '

"Sorry Master, I didn't think he could be trusted after all he is a Weasley, a pure blood yes, but from a muggle loving family." Peter said.

"A Weasley" Ron whispered, "must be Percy always has been a little on the dark side ever since he got that job at the ministry. I'll have to tell mom. Oh and Harry, if Voldemort is here why isn't your scar hurting you?"

"He must not be here, Voldemort is powerful and he can probably communicate with Peter through any means." exclaimed Harry. Just then a rat ran out of the whole and right past the three friends. None of them noticed. 

"Alright, let's get in there and get Pettigrew. On three, one…two…three" They all jumped in and yelled "STUPEFY" with their wands pointed in different directions since it was dark. "Lumos" Harry cried, the others then followed suit. 

" Drat! He's not here, he must have escaped using his animagus ability."

Harry then heard crying, he turned to see Ron, crying on Hermione's shoulder. "What's wrong" He asked, Hermione motioned a little bit off to Harry's left behind him, Harry turned and saw why Ron was crying. Ron's brother, Percy, lay there dead on the floor. "Ron, take Percy and get out of here, take him to your parents, tell McGonagall what's happened. Me and Hermione will continue on."

Ron picked up one of Percy's old shoe, set it done and cried "Portus" He then grabbed onto Percy and they disappeared. They reappeared outside the Burrow a second later. "Mom, Dad, there is something I need to tell you. It might come as a bit of a shock..." Mr. and Mrs. Weasley walked outand Ron blocked Percy's body from view. "Percy's dead. He was working for Voldemort. We were searching the Chamber of Secrets for something, we saw the flash of green light, then heard Peter Pettigrew talking to Voldemort saying he didn't think Percy could be trusted. We tried to get Pettigrew but he escaped by turning into scabbers and running from us. And there lay Percy, lifeless on the ground." Ron stepped aside and his mother burst into tears at the sight of Percy's body.

"Molly, we need to tell the Order. I'll go to headquarters now and tell them." Arthur said, "Ron you wait here with your mother until I get back."

"Okay, but hurry I need to go tell McGonagall what's happened."

Arthur ran into the house went straight to the fireplace grabbed a pinch of floo powder stepped inside shouted "Number 12 Grimmuald Place" and disappeared in a brilliant display of emerald flames. A second later he arrived in the kitchen of 12 Grimmuald Place. "Lupin," he called, "gather the rest of the order as quickly as you can, I have urgent news." Lupin took off and quickly gathered those of the order that weren't at Hogwarts, including the older Weasley brothers, and the Weasley twins, Mad Eye Moody, and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"What's so important that I had to come here so quickly? I was about to take a nap" Moody asked. There was a pause."Well Arthur, get on with it."

"It concernshe who must not be namedand his death eaters. Apparently they have gotten within the walls of Hogwarts, well two of them eaters at least, Pettigrew, and Percy." Arthur said

"PERCY?" Rang out all the order in unison

"Surely not your son... Arthur?" Shacklebolt questioned with a furrowed brow.

"Unfortunately yes. Pettigrew didn't think he could be trusted and killed him, Ron, Harry, and Hermione found him dead. If they had gotten there a little sooner they could have saved him... they could have saved my boy.." Arthur managed to say as he burst out into tears. The mood in the room was somber.

"Percy's dead?" Cried the Weasley's in unison.

"What are we gonna do dad?" Asked Charlie

"We will hold a funeral this weekend as soon as I get back home; Ron is going to Hogwarts to notify McGonagall who will notify the entire school." Arthur said. His sobs were gone now and his facebore a hard expression,"I should be getting home you are all welcome to come to our house."

With a nod Arthur then stepped back inside the fireplace grabbed a pinch of floo powder, he shouted "The Burrow" and disappeared in bright emerald green flames. The rest of the Weasley's along with Lupin followed suit.

Back at the Burrow, Ron was getting worried, what were Harry and Hermione doing? And how far had they gone within the chamber? Just then his father walked out of the fireplace, andRon ran towards it, just as Charlie appeared in the grate. Charlie stepped out, followed by Bill, the twins, and Lupin. "Nice to see you all" Ron greeted them, "Wish I could stay and chat but I gotta get back to Hogwarts."

A second later Ron appeared in McGonagall's office. "Mr. Weasley what are you doing here, I never gave you permission to leave, and by entering my office that way I know you left."

"Sorry Professor, but my brother, Percy, was killed down in the Chamber of Secrets, part of our mission led me, Harry and Hermione down there and we saw the flash of green light then heard Pettigrew's voice. I had to take his body home and tell my parents, who went to tell the rest of the Order. Harry and Hermione are still downin the chamberattempting to accomplish their mission." Ron said.

"Well, in that case I guess that it is alright. I will notify all the teachers and I will notify the rest of the school, as for you, go back home and stay with your family." McGonagall said. Ron agreed, stepped into the fireplace, grabbed a pinch of floo powder, shouted "The Burrow" and disappeared in a brilliant display of emerald green flames.

Meanwhile back down in the Chamber of Secrets Harry and Hermione decided to continue onward. Harry looked around and found a small little door that they had to crawl to get through. They crawled through the door and found a small little room with a tunnel that went down further inside the tunnel, so they crawled inside that tunnel and slid down. At the bottom of the slide they appeared in a large room that had three different doors.

"What now Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Well we choose a door and go through it and hope it's the right one, and if it's not we come back and choose another until we find the right one. Let's start with the middle one." Harry said eager to solve the puzzle and find the next horcrux.

Harry and Hermione went through the middle door and came to another open room which again had three doors in it, including the one they came through with oneto the left andthe other tothe right of it. "Hermione go back, and go through one of the other doors." Harry said. Hermione did as she was asked, went back, and then came through the door on the left, and was back in the Room with three doors where Harry already was.

"Harry, all three doors lead to this room, so there must be some kind of trap through the doors, we must have to get through some kind of maze or something, and only one door leads us to the right path, I bet we have to get to the center of the room." Hermione said.

Harry began to concentrate hard on the magical frequencies around him. After about twenty minutes he figured it out. "Go back Hermione; meet me in the room behind us." Harry said. A little bit later they were back in the large room. "We both choose the wrong door, it's this one, I know it is." So they went through the last of the three doors.

Once inside the room again, they started walking out on the bricks Harry leading the way determining which brick was safe to step on. Eventually they made it to the middle of the room, where they stepped on the last brick. This made something strange appear on the other side of the room.

"We need to get to it Hermione," Harry said, "Follow me." So they started on their way to the other side of the room. Once there they saw that it was a book, Hermione reached out for it. "NO" Harry yelled. "Hermione, it's a trap! Go back. I will get it once I believe you are safely out of the chamber."

Hermione obeyed and worked her way back out of the chamber carefully stepping only on the bricks they had stepped on to get there. She wanted to be there with Harry when he picked up the book, but she knew better than to go againgst his instruction. Once completely outside the chamber she found Ron, who wasabout to go inside the Chamber.

"Where's Harry?" He asked.

"Aren't you supposed to be with your family?" Hermione said

"Yes, but they told me to come make sure you guys were alright... so where is Harry?" Ron said.

"Still inside, he told me to get out and that it was a trap." Hermione said. "He is dealing with it now." All of a sudden Harry's broomwhooshed right by the side of their heads. "What was that!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I think it was Harry's Broom." Ron replied, "Must've been how he was going to deal with the trap."

Back inside the chamber Harry was waiting for his broom to arrive which he had just summoned. When it finally arrived he waited. "What exactly does this want before I take the book?" He thought. Concentrating hard he finally figured out exactly what was wanted, all thatwas needed was for something to weigh down on the rock that the book rested on. Harry then summoned a book ofthe same size as the one on the rock in front of him.He replaced the books and realized the one he had in his hand now was lighter then the one he replaced it with. A stupid mistake.The room started to shake violently. Harry hopped on his broom and started flying away. 

Wand out and ready to destroy anything in his way, Harry started flying across the room dodging the falling debris. "REDUCTO" Harry cried as he reached the door blowing it to bits so he can get through. He zoomed back up the slide as fast as he could. He reached the top and screamed "REDUCTO" because the fallen debris had blocked his exit. He was then back into the familiar room where he killed the basilisk and destroyed a horcrux just five years ago. He noticed this room was falling to pieces as well, so there was no slowing him down. He zoomed in and around heading straight for the exit. Just as he was reaching the tunnel that lead up to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom he was knocked off his broom.

"Give me the book Potter, or we will both die down here." Came a voice he first heard five years ago while buying books.

"Malfoy, how did you get in here, or more importantly how did you escape from Azkaban? Harry said

"Well, the Dark Lord is a powerful wizard Potter, now give me the book." Malfoy said.

"NO" Harry shouted, "YOU WILL NEVER WIN!."

"That's what your silly little friends that were waiting at the entrance said Potter. I will get that book.The Dark Lordhas asked me to so it shall be done. If I don't get it, he will kill me, so I will do anything to get it from you Potter."

"If you want. Duel me for it." Harry said.

"It's your funeral Potter." Malfoy replied, an evil smirk speading across his face.

They drew their wands, faced each other, and bowed. Malfoy started off almost immediately. "CRUCIO" He bellowed

"HAHISTNA" Harry countered, and the familiar magical mirror appeared in front and reflected the curse back at Malfoy. Malfoy who was not expecting Harry to know such advanced magic was stunned and got hit by his own curse. He fell to the ground writhing in pain.

He got up as quickly as he could ready to get back at Potter. He washolding back. He wasn't going to kill Potter, because the Dark Lord wanted to be the one to finish him off. "SECTEMSEMPRA" Malfoy bellowed.

"HAHISTNA" Harry bellowed. Malfoy who was ready this time expecting Harry to do just that said "HAHISTNA CONTRAIG"

"STUPEFY" Harry yelled while Malfoy was absorbing the spell he had sent, it was right behind the reflected spell, and hit the mirror right afterward, but since it was not a reflected spell, it went straight through and released the spell already in it, sending both at Malfoy.

Malfoy fell to the ground immobile as huge gashes appeared all over him. Harry instantly healed Malfoy knowing he had won, and bound him. "LEVICORPUS" Harry said, and Malfoy's bound body floated in the air behind him. Harry flew up out of the Chamber to find Ron and Hermione bothstunned. He didn't have time to deal with them just now, so he headed straight for McGonagall's office. When he arrived he told McGonagall what happened.

McGongall then took Malfoy's stunned personage to the ministry of magic. "Kingsley" she called when she got there. "I have an escaped prisoner who tried to kill a couple students. Do with him what you will, and increase your guards at Azkaban if you can... By the way, in case you haven't heard, Percy Weasley has been killed, he was in league with death eaters, and one of them, Peter Pettigrew, killed him. I think the funeral is this weekend, but if you get a chance drop by the Burrow. make sure you do. I need to get back to the school though, examine the grounds make sure all known death eaters are off the grounds."

When she got back to her office she expected Harry to still be there, and was surprised to find that he wasn't. Harry had run off back to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to take care of Ron and Hermione. He revived them then took them to the hospital wing and told Madame Pomfrey what had happened. Then Harry returned to the common room to check out the book. As he was looking through it, he realized something, this was not a horcrux, it was just a book. Ashe read it further he noticed something, a little note written in the corner. It was written in a barely legible scrawl that Harry could just makeout. It read:_Now that you've looked deep inside, look deeper inside this to find the key to the room where is what you seek._

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**Authors Note: Yay! Finally getting over my writers block! I'd really like to see some more reviews from you people reading my story! So PRESS THAT BUTTON!**

**You know you want to...**


	13. An Emotional Goodbye

**Chapter 13  
The Room of Monsters**

"Draco, you made a huge mistake by showing that spell to the Dark Lord, you realize if anybody finds out you invented that curse, you are as good as dead. They will have the dementors administer a little kiss to you." Snape said.

"Sorry Professor, but I wanted to show you I'm better then you think." Malfoy replied. "anywayhow is my father?I heard he escaped from Azkaban."

"Well we broke many out, your father included, but your father being the man he is went straight to Hogwarts to get revenge on Potter, and his friends. But he couldn't even defeat stupid Potter in a duel, and is now back in Azkaban."

"But you'll get him out again won't you?" Malfoy said.

"We can try but they will have it guarded a lot better now that many have broken out." Snape replied. Just then Malfoy and Snape's arms burned and they immediately apparated to the graveyard as usual.

"My loyal death eaters, I notice you are all here, all that is but one, and I also notice we are missing one of those under the imperious curse, but of course I know what happened to him." Voldemort started, as he glanced over at Pettigrew. "Percy Weasley who we had under the imperious curse was killed today by Pettigrew who didn't think we could trust him even under the imperious curse. The question is, where is Lucious Malfoy? Draco do you know where you father is?"

"Azkaban" Draco replied.

"How can that be when we just broke him out today." Voldemort hissed.

"He lost a duel to Potter" Draco replied, "What do you plan to do with him Master?"

"Well seeing as how he is no use to me if he can't defeat Potter in a simple duel, he will die, but I have an idea, how 'bout you kill your father yourself? His life or yours in a duel next time we break him out." Voldemort hissed, "How does that sound?"

"F-Fine," Draco stuttered unable to contest Voldemort's wishes.

"You're afraid aren't you Draco" Voldemort hissed, "But of course after training with Snape I'm sure a duelist like yourself will have no trouble dueling somebody like your father. After all this isn't the first time he has lost to a bunch of teenagers."

"N-n-no" Draco said. "I-I-I can t-take m-my father."

"Good then, we will go break him out now" Voldemort hissed. "I will allow you to go get some last minute training with Snape if you like."

"Yes Master, I will use the time to train." Draco said.

Draco and Snape apparated off to Spinners End, while the rest Apparated as close as they could to Azkaban. "We break him out now, everybody will be mourning with the Weasley's over the loss of their son. It should be pretty clear, but there will be guards on him since he is a known death eater."

"Professor, what am I going to do, I don't want to duel my father, I don't want to kill him." Draco cried.

"This is your duel I will not bail you out of this one. My only advice is to wait to go on the offensive, use everything I've taught you to defend yourself, then at the right time, use the spell you created to finish the duel." Snape spat at him.

After the breakout, the dark marks burned on Snape and Draco's arm again signaling it was time to go. They apparated back to the graveyard where Lucius was already waiting in the center of the circle to duel Draco.

"Draco step in the circle and prepare to duel your father." Snape issued the command, his voice cold and uncaring.

"Alright, this will be a duel to the death. Father versus son." Voldemort said, "Now bow and begin."

Draco obeyed Snape's command to stay defensive until the most opportune moment. Lucius struck out with the Cruciatus Curse. Draco defended as he was told.

"Avada Kedavra" Lucius shouted and a green beam of light burst through his wand just as Draco jumped out of the way and it hit the headstone behind him. Draco stood up and was ready.

"Crucio" Lucius bellowed.

"Hahistna" Draco shouted, and the little magical mirror appeared in front of him and reflected back toward Lucius."

"Hahistna Contraig" Lucius bellowed, Lucius who remembered how he lost to Potter was ready just incase Draco tried to pull a stunt like Harry had done. He used a non-verbal spell of "Protego" right behind the mirror.

Draco wasn't quite as clever as Harry, and didn't see this as his opportunity so he hadn't done as his father had expected. "Imperio" Lucius bellowed. Draco wasn't expecting this but knew he could take it so he just let it hit him. Inside his head he heard a voice, "give up," but then a stronger voice, "Why there's no reason, I won't do it." The curse had no effect and Draco saw his oppourtunity. "SPEBEREL" Draco shouted and it hit his father who hadn't been expecting it right in the chest, Lucius fell to the ground writhing in pain as huge gashes appeared all over his body like he was being slashed by a sword and he bleed everywhere.

"AV…" Draco started when he was interrupted, by Lord Voldemort.

"Do nothing Draco, I want him to suffer maybe it will teach others not to fail me." Voldemort hissed. Draco sat and watched as his father slowly died, he did his best to hide the fact that he was hurt inside.

* * *

The next morning, Ron and Hermione returned to the common room where they found Harry sleeping in front of the fire place, with the book on his lap. "Harry, wake up. Harry, what did you find out? HARRY!"

Harry awoke with a start surprised to see Ron and Hermione in front of him. "What?" he asked.Since Harry had been half asleep he hadn't comprehended what Ron had asked him.

"Harry, what did you find in the book, is it the Horcrux?" Hermione said.

"I don't think so, but I did finda little note scratched into the margins of the book." Harry said.

"Now that you've looked deep inside, looker deeper inside this to find the key to the room where is what you seek." Hermione repeated. "Well obviously that means, the key to where the horcrux is deep inside this book."

"So in other words we need to search this book for clues." Ron replied. "That will be fun." Ron said in a highly sarcastic tone.

"Yes but we must do it." Harry said. "It's the only way to destroy Voldemort."

"Well, we don't have much time right now, we should help Ron's parents prepare for the funeral." Hermione said. "It's in two days, and we still haven't let Ginny know yet."

"Let me know what?" Ginny asked, "and what is this talk about my parents preparing for a funeral?"

"Ginny," Ron said "we were on our mission down in the Chamber of Secrets, we saw a flash of green light, and then heard Voldemort talking to Peter Pettigrew, and then we found Percy's body." At this Ginny began to cry. "Apparently he was working with the death eaters."

"Percy's dead?" Ginny sobbed. "How come you waited until now to tell me?"

"Because it only happened yesterday Ginny and before we got the chance to tell you we were STUPEFYED, and had to rest in the hospital wing. We couldn't tell you until we were better." Hermione said.

"Well why didn't Harry tell me? I saw him here last night he was just fine." Ginny yelled.

"We wanted Ron to tell you Ginny, sorry. After all it's a family issue." Harry said.

"Well, what are we waiting for? We need to go help mom and dad." Ginny said.

The four headed off to McGonagall's office so they could travel to the Burrow using the floo network. When they arrived in her office, she was waiting for them, ready to allow them to leave. "I've been waiting for you, I will be coming with you to the Burrow, I have left Professor Flitwick in charge while I'm gone."

The five of them traveled to the Burrow. When they arrived they were greeted by the rest of the Weasley's and a good portion of the Order. "Minerva" Arthur said, "Percy always loved Hogwarts, would we be allowed to bury him on the grounds next to Dumbledore?"

"Of course Arthur, I will contact Professor Flitwick and get him to start preparing." Professor McGonagall said. "It will all be ready by tomorrow. I will go and help." Professor McGonagall then traveled back to Hogwarts.

"Dad?" Ginny said, "can I see him?"

"Of course Ginny" Arthur said, "he is up in his bedroom." Ginny headed up the stairs to Percy's bedroom, remembering her first year at Hogwarts when she caught him with his girlfriend. She thought about all the good times they had had, and wondered why he would work with Voldemort.

The Weasley's notified everybody they could, and told them where and when the funeral would be. They got all the preparations necessary, and then took Percy's body to Hogwarts. The next day at ten in the morning was the funeral. The school gathered like they had done less then one year ago for Dumbledore's funeral. After everybody had gathered around Hagrid brought Percy's covered body and laid it on a table as he had done for Dumbledore. Professor McGonagall gave a short eulogy on Percy and his time at Hogwarts. She was followed by the rest of the Weasley's starting with Ginny and working up to Arthur and Molly. The entire service took about two hours, and at the end the tomb erupted into flames, and again Harry swore he saw a Phoenix fly away from the tomb. Then it hit him, he had seen a phoenix at Dumbledore's funeral, it symbolized a rebirth, and it must happen to all wizards when they die and are buried.

After everything was over, the Weasley's, Harry, Hermione and some of the Order, returned to the Burrow to reflect on the times they had shared with Percy. Of course Ron, Ginny, and Harry, and Hermione who were practically Weasley's were excused from Homework for the next week. They spent there free time for this week with the Weasley's going to classes when they had them, but spending all the other time at the Burrow.

"Harry, it's been a week, what have you found in that book?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I've read the book all the way through, and it just is a book on different monsters and how to defeat them. I haven't found the key yet but I'm halfway through reading it for the third time now, and I'm being extremely careful this time." Harry said.

"Haven't found the key yet?" Hermione said, "of course you have, our original thought was that the horcrux was in the room of requirement. That book tells us what to think, when opening the room, it also tells us how to get past them. Don't you see Harry, it's hidden in a room of monsters."

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**Authors Note: Please REVIEW! Ok, I'm writing chapter 14, and here is how it is going to work. It's going to be focused on both Harry and Draco going through very similar experiences at the exact same time, so it will be very jumpy, but i will puta rulereverytime it jumps characters. It will start off with Draco, but of course that's easy to figure out. I hope you enjoyed this chapter:) **


	14. The Cup, the Dagger, and the Snake

**Chapter 14  
The Cup, the Dagger, and the Snake**

Draco Malfoy moped around Spinner's End. He had just killed his father, making himself an orphan, seeing as how he had already killed his mother in a duel where she was pretending to be Snape using some polyjuice potion. Snape wanted to see how well Draco would fair in a duel. Then last night Voldemort forced him to duel his father to the death, so left with the choice of his life or his father's hechose his, because knowing how Voldemort is, he probably would have killed his father anyway. Draco walked into his bedroom at Spinner's end, it was colder and darker then usual, it seemed to be reflecting his mood. He flopped down on his bed and drifted off into a deep sleep.

* * *

Harry Potter thought about everything Hermione had said and about how he would get through this room that would be full of monsters, and how he would survive and keep the others alright. I must do it alone heconcluded as he climbed into bed, and drifted off into a deep sleep.

* * *

Draco Malfoy was surrounded by monsters, in a room he barely recognized, he knew where he was, it was the room of requirement, and yet it wasn't as he had entered it when they broke up a DA meeting almost two years ago. There were creatures of all sorts and yet they acted like they couldn't see him. He started to wander around the room looking for anything to explain why the creatures weren't attacking him. He looked at them, there were werewolves, acromantulas, boggarts, dragons, hinkypunks, doxies, chimeras, fire crabs, trolls, yetis, sphinxes, kappa's, and a basilisk. _How is anybody suppose to get through here alive he thought, and why is nothing attacking me?_ Draco continued to walk around noticing that some creatures stopped moving completely like they had been stunned, just then he bumped into something he couldn't see.

* * *

Harry Potter was outside the room of requirement; he was alone and had brought his invisibility cloak. He threw it over himself and walked into the room. He immediately saw what was meant by room of monsters, creatures of all kinds, some he had dealt with before and others he hadn't. _What had he gotten himself into?_ Slowly he snuck by stunning whatever he could using nonverbal spells so he wouldn't draw attention to himself. He wandered around and suddenly bumped into something he hadn't seen.

* * *

Draco's invisibility cloak had slipped; he hadn't realized he had one on. Creatures started toward him ready to kill. Just then Draco saw what he had bumped into, it was Harry Potter. Harry had thrown of his cloak and started stunning creature's right and left stopping them from attacking himself or Malfoy. Draco noticing what Harry was doing continued he could not lose his life, and was told only to attack if attacked. Many monsters were stunned just a few left, and they hadn't yet noticed that Harry and Draco were there. Draco decided he would please his master and kill Harry Potter. "SPEBEREL" Draco shouted.

Draco awoke being violently shaken by Snape. "Wake up Draco" Snape spat at him.

"Professor, I just had the weirdest dream. I was sent to a room full of monsters to protect something, I have no idea what. I was in the room of requirement I believe, and Potter was there, I was just about to kill him when you woke me up. What does it mean?" Draco asked.

"Well, first off it means you will be protecting one of the Horcruxes, it also means you will be needing this." Snape reached under the bed and pulled out on old chest, he opened it and pulled out an invisibility cloak. "This should help you."

* * *

Harry Potter awoke with a start. "What a weird dream," he thought, "the question is why was Draco in the room of requirement, and how had he gotten into Hogwarts unnoticed." He thought about it for a while then decided to tell the one person he thought could help him, Regulus. He immediately wrote down everything he had seen in the dream and sent an owl to Regulus. He then dug out his book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and his invisibility cloak. He studied everything he could about the creatures he had seen. He already knew about the basilisk, the boggart's, the hinkypunks, dragons and a few others, but he had to know how to deal with all of them.

"What are you doing Harry" Ron asked.

"I'm Trying to figure out how to get to the next horcrux." Harry replied. "But if I'm correct, I don't want you, Hermione or Ginny coming with me."

"We are going with you no matter what Harry." Ron replied.

"You WILL NOT go even if I have to stun you myself." Harry yelled.

* * *

"Why will this help me?" Draco said holding up the cloak.

"The monsters you saw are not tame, they won't see you if you are invisible. And if they can't see you…"

"They can't attack me." Draco interrupted. "Well, how am I suppose to fight them or fight anybody that tries to take the Horcrux if I am under the cloak."

"I will teach you that all in due time." Snape said, "and I will accompany you."

"Accompany me? Why?"

"To ensure everything is done right."

Draco dug threw his old textbooks looking for one specific one, glad he had brought his school stuff to Spinner's End. Finally he found it and pulled it out, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

* * *

Harry studied all day and night, reading the book and testing out various spells he found within it. At about midnight he heard a peck at the window. Harry ran over to the window where Hedwig was with a letter tied to her foot. Harry opened the window and let her in. He gave her an owl treat and untied the letter from her foot and read:

_Harry, meet me in the shrieking shack as soon as possible, it is urgent that I discuss this with you._

_RAB  
_  
As soon as Harry finished he ran off to the shrieking shack, to meet Regulus. _Why do I need to meet him in person?_ he thought as he was running toward the whomping willow. _It must be important though_. He arrived in the Shrieking Shack and was greeted by Regulus.

"Harry, excellent we have lot's to discuss, first off, I will be accompanying you on this trip. I have my own invisibility cloak I will be using. Second, it will take lots of time to prepare I will let you know when we are ready to strike. Third, we will be busy, tell McGonagall you will be gone for a week, then come here, after the week is over if more time is needed go back and tell her you need more time."

* * *

"You won't need that" Snape said, "I will be teaching you everything you need to know. It will be long, it will be hard, it will take about a week."

"A week, what if the Dark Lord makes us go before then?" Draco said.

"Then we go whether you are ready or not." Snape said.

Draco and Snape started immediately. Snape taught Draco everything he needed to know about defeating different creatures. Finding that a stun will subdue most, but not all, and it will only subdue them for short periods of time.

* * *

Harry ran back and told McGonagall that he, and he alone was going to be gone for a week, and then returned to the shrieking shack. When he arrived he looked all around but couldn't find Regulus anywhere. He wandered around for a few minutes, then out of nowhere his wand flew out of his hand. Then he watched as Regulus removed his cloak and retrieved Harry's wand. "Harry, why couldn't you find me? I was in the same place the whole time." Regulus said.

"Well, you were invisible."

"And why does that matter Harry? What have I been teaching you lately?"

"To sense magical things around me. You mean I can sense wizards as well?"

"Sort of, you can sense that there is something full of magic around you, and in this abandoned house, it was a pretty good guess, now in the room of monsters it will be a little harder but you can do it."

"Regulus, how did you attack through the cloak?"

"Simple, I just barely stuck the tip of the wand outside the cloak. If somebody were to look right at it, they would think it was a speck against the wall behind me."

"Duh, why didn't I think of that."

* * *

Draco awoke the next morning to find that Professor Snape was gone, or at least that's what he thought. Draco wandered around the house preparing himself breakfast, just as he was about to take a drink of pumpkin juice, the glass flew out of his hand and across the room, right into a hand coming out of nowhere. Professor Snape removed the cloak and asked Draco why he had not known he was there.

"Well, you were invisible."

"And that matter's why? What have I been teaching you lately?"

"To sense magical presences around me. I can sense wizards as well?"

"Not really, you can sense that there is a powerful magical being around you, and in Spinner's End where it is just you and me, it would have been a good guess, now in the room of requirement full of magical beings, it will be a little harder but if you try hard, you can do it."

"And I take it you cast the spell from under the cloak by barely sticking your wand out then?"

"Yes it's good to see you aren't as ignorant as I thought."

* * *

Harry trained day and night for two days with Regulus. Everyday in and out they trained taking turns hiding under the cloaks, and attacking each other by surprise, until Harry could sense where the magical energy was coming from and struck Regulus before he could strike him. The next few days Harry spent fighting magical creatures that Regulus would bring in.

* * *

Draco spent a day fighting Snape from under the invisibility cloaks. It took a while but Draco finally mastered sensing the strong magical presence a wizard would give off. They then spent a few days destroying magical creatures and learning how to fight from under the cloak. They sat down to enjoy their breakfast on the following morning.Just then their arms felt that familiar burn that meant Voldemort wanted his Death Eaters around him. They apparated to the graveyard.

"Greetings my loyal death eaters, I'm guessing from the fact that Lucius lost a duel to Potter inside the Chamber of Secrets that my last horcruxes are in danger. So I will need you guys to protect them." Voldemort began, "From my understanding I have lost three of them already leaving three left. I want my best death eaters protecting them. Snape, I want you to protect Gryffindor's dagger, it is deep under the House of Gaunt. Malfoy, I want you to protect Hufflepuff's Cup, it is within the room of requirement, in a room of monsters. That is all you need to know to open it. Make sure you take an invisibility cloak with it. You will go NOW. I will protect my last horcrux myself, my precious snake Nagini."

* * *

"Ok, Harry you are ready much quicker then I would have expected. We go tonight" Regulus said. "By the way, I have heard you know what all the horcruxes are, please tell me what is left, and where you think they are."

"Well I believe the room of requirement, somewhere near the House of Gaunt, and of course wherever Voldemort is, are the locations of them. What's left is Hufflepuff's cup, Gryffindor's dagger, and Voldemort's snake Nagini."

"This is what the prophecy meant, a long time ago, it was prophecied to me that I would train somebody to find and destroy the cup, the dagger, and the snake."

* * *

**Authors Note: yay! The holidays are here and my boredomhas funded me with enough material to end my writers block again! I have started writing again and have written a couple more chapters so I guess I shall put one up a day! How's that? Thanks again for reading! **

**Now Please Review, I want to know how it's going! Please?**


	15. A Tragic Loss

**Chapter 15  
A Tragic Loss  
**  
A young man with smooth black hair walked out of his bedroom, down the hall, passing all the house elves heads on the way down to the kitchen. He continued on his way and ran into his older brother, who also was young with black hair, and his friend with shaggy black hair.

"Starting school this year Regulus?" Sirius said "Are you ready?"

"Of course I am, I just hope I don't get stuck in the same house as you, I hope I'm in Slytherin, instead of stupid Gryffindor."

"Gryffindor is NOT stupid." Sirius and James said together. Both Sirius and James were in Gryffindor, and had started school two years previous.

"Sirius, Regulus, come get breakfast, we need to get to King's Cross station by eleven today, so you don't miss the train." Came the voice of Mrs. Black

Regulus and Sirius Black, and James Potter all sat down and ate a quick breakfast before heading up to King's Cross station. Once on platform nine and three quarters they began to board the scarlet steam engine, known as the Hogwarts express. They all boarded the train together, once on James and Sirius ran off looking for Remus Lupin to join him, leaving Regulus by himself. Regulus began looking for a room to sit in. Finally he found one that had only one other occupant.

"May I sit here?" He asked, the little girl with bug-eyed glasses.

"Yes,I'm Sibyll Trelawney; may I ask who you are?"

"My name is Regulus, Regulus Black."

"Well hello Regulus, this is my first time to Hogwarts, how bout you?"

"This is my first year as well, although my brother is here somewhere he is a couple years older then me, and in his third year."

They talked for most of the train ride when something weird began to happen, Sibyll started acting weird and her voice changed. "The cup, the dagger, and the snake must be destroyed to win the war. Regulus Black will train the one. The ways of magical interpretation to the one that will defeat the Dark Lord. After years of hiding where people believe he is dead, he will emerge again to train the one." Then she snapped out of it.

"The Dark Lord? Who is that?" Regulus asked her.

"What are you talking about? I didn't saying anything about a Dark Lord."

"Yes you did, you got all weird, your eyes glossed over and your voice changed and you spoke about a cup, a dagger, and a snake that must be destroyed to win a war. You said I would train the one that would destroy them after people believe I'm dead?"

"I honestly have no idea what you are talking about; I didn't say anything like that at all."

Regulus decided she was a little too weird and decided to leave the room and search for another one. But he never would forget the words she said.

A few years later, this same young man with smooth black hair was in his final year at Hogwarts. Rumors of a man calling himself Lord Voldemort are spreading all over the place. The followers called him the Dark Lord. "Is this what was meant? I would train the one that would finally defeat the Dark Lord? Well I don't care; I'm joining him as soon as I'm out of here."

"Regulus" came the voice of an old man, it was gentle. Regulus turned and looked at the man with a long white beard and hair. His eyes behind his half moon spectacles glowed.

"Professor Dumbledore, what is it?" Regulus asked.

"What are your plans after school, the year is almost over, and with the threat of the Dark Lord, I am willing to train all the seventh years myself to protect themselves from him to the best of my ability. Are you interested?"

"Of course Professor" Regulus said, with a look in his eye that said he wouldn't need protection.

"Great, we will begin tomorrow, meet in the Great Hall after breakfast."

Regulus turned out to be the only one who was taking these lessons, but since he agreed to do them, he did them. They were rigorous and time consuming, but Dumbledore being the headmaster had Regulus excused from all his classes, telling the teachers that he personally was teaching Regulus. He taught Regulus to fight, and to defend, he taught him only to fight when attacked and defense is doing nothing. Regulus learned a great deal of offense and more then enough defense.

"Now that I have taught you enough to prevail in any duel you ever get in, I will teach you the fine art of magical interpretation, or in other words, being able to sense anything magical around you, including wizards, learning enough of this will allow you to see right through invisibility cloaks, nobody will be able to hide from you." Dumbledore said

"That would be great." Regulus said.

"Great, meet me tomorrow in my office at the usual time." Dumbledore said, and he turned and walked away. Dumbledore went to his office, and dug out his old invisibility cloak. "I'm going to be needing this for the next few lessons" he said to himself.

The next day after breakfast Regulus headed straight to Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore had sent him the password via the morning owl posts. "Phoenix" he said, and the stone gargoyle sprung to life and he started up the stone staircase to Dumbledore's office. Once at the top, he knocked on the door and it opened, to his surprise there was nothing in the office, including Dumbledore. Regulus walked around for a few minutes looking for any sign of Dumbledore. Just as he was about to give up he was hit by a paralyzing spell. His arms and legs sprung together and he fell over on the floor.

"Regulus, you must learn to see me when I am under the cloak. It is the only way to be completely defended against almost anything." Dumbledore told him with fiery passion in is voice.

"You know something don't you?" Regulus began, "Something that I'm suppose to do"

"I can't say I do, but I know something is up when we only have one member of the Black family on our side, we want you as well Regulus." Dumbledore said.

"Well, I don't think I'll join either side." Regulus lied. "I think I'll just go home and sit there."

"Well, I will do my best to convince you to join our side, but either way, if you want, I will still train you."

"Agreed" Regulusreplied with joy.

The next day Regulus woke up bright and early to get a good breakfast before meeting Dumbledore two hours earlier then normal. On his way down he ran into Sybill Trelawney, who he rarely saw since that day back on the train his first year, she was in Ravenclaw. "Hello" he said, "do you remember me?"

"Can't say that I do, when did we meet?"

"About seven years ago, on our first day of school."

"Oh yes, you were the one that mentioned something about the Dark Lord, saying I had said something about him first."

"You did." Regulus said, "you said, Regulus Black will train the one to destroy the cup, the dagger and the snake. He will emerge from years of hiding after many believe he is dead. You said I will train him in the ways of magical interpretation, which I don't know so I don't see how I can teach it to him."

"If you say so." Sybill said. "Well I guess we were right about a Dark Lord. Anyway, I'm gonna be late for divination, it's a fascinating subject you know."

"Alright, I need to go meet Dumbledore anyway." Regulus started walking off, then he heard a familiar voice. He turned and Sybill was just standing there speaking. He caught a little of what he was saying.

"The two that betray the Dark Lord, will die in the quest to destroy him. One will leave and hide for years, the other become a spy. The one to leave will be the first to die. He will die at the hands of the most loyal servants son. The spy will die protecting the one from the Dark Lord."

"The two that betray the Dark Lord will die in the quest to destroy him?" Regulus said to himself. "This is all really weird." After all that was over, Regulus continued on his way to Dumbledore's office never forgetting what she said.

A few years later, this same young man with smooth black hair, was standing in the presence of the Dark Lord. "Regulus Black, you are a very skilled fighter, in both defense and offense. You will make a great addition to my team of Death Eaters, you have skills few wizards have, you can sense magical frequencies making it easy for you to protect my horcruxes. Put out your arm." Regulus did as he was told, and the Dark Lord inscribed the Dark Mark onto his arm.

Regulus then kissed the hem of his new masters robes, then apparated home. He had all the information he now needed. Dumbledore had taught him everything to protect himself including occlumency so the Dark Lord could not see into his mind. He sat there and thought for a while, why would he do that to Dumbledore, how could he have betrayed him after all he had done for him. Weeks went by, Regulus was out killing innocent people, and dueling other death eaters when the Dark Lord asked him to kill them. Regulus since he had be trained so well rarely got a scratch on him. Then one day as he was out doing the bidding of the Dark Lord he ran into a familiar friend.

"Regulus," came the soft voice of Albus Dumbledore, "don't let the Dark Lord cloud your mind, you are better then this, I can set you free, I can protect you."

"NO" Regulus shouted, "don't make me kill you, get out of my way."

"I WILL NOT LET YOU HURT ANYONE ELSE REGULUS."

"Fine you will die" Regulus began attacking Dumbledore. The battle was hard, and Dumbledore never once got hit or fired a spell at Regulus, the whole time he only talked. "If you want to kill me then kill me, but hear me out first Regulus. I know what happened to you your first day on the train to Hogwarts, I know we will need you. Just today I had that same girl leave a prophecy with me, she was applying for a teaching postion at Hogwarts. She told me the one will be born when the seventh month dies. To parents who have defied Voldemort three times, we need you to train him to defeat him. The Dark Lord shows no mercy, if you even so hint as not doing his will you will die, I can protect you though. Come with me Regulus."

Regulus dropped his wand. He thought about all the things the prophesies he had received had said. There would be two that betrayed the Dark Lord, none had done so far unless of course the spy had already done so. Anyway he was still afraid. "Fine what are we going to do?"

"In a week, I will set it up to fake your death, I will send you a letter the day before telling you everything you will need to know. Now go."

Six days later Regulus was out fighting for the Dark Lord to cover for what was about to happen, when he received an owl. He took this as his sign to leave, he disapparated away. When he reappeared he was in a tropical island, it was deserted, nobody was there, no animals were there either. Once there he read the letter Dumbledore had written.

_Regulus, the act happens tonight at 10, everybody will believe you are dead, including Lord Voldemort. You must not send any owl's or do anything concering magic in the area you are now in. I will not be sending you anymore letters until it is time for you to emerge. Stay up on your magical things, when you sense a magical presence coming your way you must leave and go somewhere new, nobody can find out you are still alive. Thank you for the information concerning the Horcruxes. It will be very useful. _

_Your friend Albus Dumbledore._

Regulus agreed to what the letter had said, but he had one last thing to do. He went to the cave where he knew a Horcrux was. He went into the cave, through all the barriers that Voldemort had set up, and retrieved the locket. Not knowing how to destroy it, he took it back to his house and hid it in the drawing room. "this should make it easier for them to find it now" he said to himself, and he apparated back to the tropical island.

* * *

"Professor, are you still coming with me to guard my horcrux since you have your own to guard?" Draco asked.

"No, I know better then to disobey the Dark Lord. I will go and guard the Horcrux as he has asked."

"So I have to face it alone?"

"Yes, but from what I've taught you and what you told me about the dream, you will fair just fine."

Draco left for Hogwarts right then, he apparated to Hogsmeade, then under the invisibility cloak made his way up the once familiar path to Hogwarts castle. Once inside the castle he made his way to the room of requirement, and entered it just as his master had commanded him. He was very careful not to bump anything or step on any creatures so he could safely make it to the horcrux which was in the very back of the second room which was filled with even more creatures. Once in a place he thought was good enough he stopped and waited.

* * *

Harry and Regulus hid under their respective cloaks and headed toward the room of requirement, being careful to not disturb anybody on their way. Once outside the room of requirement, they slowly prepared themselves to go in, after walking around the room while thinking about monsters, they entered it.  
_'My God' _Regulus thought, '_there is way more in here then I expected. There are werewolves, acromantulas, boggarts, dragons, hinkypunks, doxies, chimeras, fire crabs, trolls, yetis, sphinxes, kappas, and a basilisk. There were dragon's of all sorts at least one of every kind mainly Antipodean Opaleye's, Chinese Fireball's (sometimes known as Liondragon), Common Welsh Green's, Hebridean Black's, Hungarian Horntail's, Norwegian Ridgeback's, Peruvian Vipertooth's, Romanian Longhorn's, Swedish Short-Snout's, and Ukrainian Ironbelly's.'_

They began slowly crossing the room destroying creatures along their way making sure not to draw attention to themselves knowing that Draco was more then likely in here. They also didn't want the creatures to know they were there. "STUPEFY" they yelled together as they reached one of the Acromantula's aiming it right at its underside. "SECTEMSEMPRA" Harry yelled after stunning it. It wasn't long before the creature was dead. Harry felt a little bad for doing it since it hadn't done anything to him.  
Then Harry heard something "I smell blood."  
"Did you hear that?" he asked Regulus.  
"Hear what?"  
"It must be the basilisk then, it can smell us."  
Harry was careful and slowly moved around, "We must kill it together before it gets the chance to kill us" he said.

"Right" Regulus agreed.

They slowly walked around looking for the basilisk. Destroying any creatures they met on their way. Finally they saw it moving, they leapt toward it both shouting "SECTEMSEMPRA" both spells hit the giant snake on its underside huge gashes appeared all over it, it eventually died from loss of blood.

The noise from the basilisk dying alerted Draco who started moving around again looking for the disturbance. He was making sure to not make any noise or destroy any of the creatures. Just then he bumped into something he hadn't seen. He invisibility cloak fell off, and the creatures started toward him. He started fighting them all off. Harry who couldn't let him fight alone started fighting as well and to fight to his full ability threw off his invisibility cloak.

After most of the creatures were defeated Draco got a huge smile on his face, he turned to face Harry and then he yelled "SPEBEREL" a jet of violent orange and purple light erupted from his wand. Regulus had seen the change in Draco's face and knew something was up. "STUPEFY" he said as he dove in front of Harry. Regulus's spell hit Draco square in the chest just as Draco's spell hit Regulus square in the chest. Regulus fell to the ground writhing in pain as huge cuts appeared all over him. The noise alerted Harry who turned after he finished off the last dragon by himself, there he saw Draco's stunned body on the ground, he bound him, then he saw something horrible, he looked over at Regulus', Harry was too late to heal him.

* * *

**Authors Note:** **Well that was the chapter... Please don't kill me! but do REVIEW! please?**


	16. The Flaming Floor

**Chapter 16  
The Flaming Floor**

Harry leaned over Regulus' body and remembered the times they had, had together, and he also began to remember the times he had had with his Godfather Sirius. His eyes filled with tears, andhe began to cry for his lost friend. _'I don't have time now'_ he thought, _'I must get this Horcrux.'_ Harry decided he would come back later and finish this quest but for now he would take Regulus's body out of the room and go see Ron and Hermione. He just left Draco's stunned and bound body there.

Harry left the room of requirement and headed straight to the Gryffindor common room, with Regulus floating behind him. He burst straight through the door and found Ron and Hermione snogging in the common room which they had cleared with one of the twins' stink bombs.

"Ron, Hermione" he yelled. "I have something urgent to tell you. It's about Regulus."

"He's dead" Hermione and Ron said together.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Harry said who had forgotten he had Regulus' body floating behind him.

"Well his body is right behind you." Ron said. "What happened?"

"Draco killed him," Harry said, "Draco was trying to kill me and Regulus dove in front of me and was hit instead. But he stunned Draco just before he was killed. I turned around at all the noise and saw Draco's stunned body so I bound him just in case, and by the time I saw Regulus's body it was too late, he was already dead."

"What should we do then?"

"Well I was going to take his body back to the House of Black and bury it there, and with Christmas break in a week I figure we can have the funeral then."

"Sounds good, did you get the Horcrux yet?" Ron asked

"No I found this more urgent, I'm headed back now, and you guys cannot come with me, it's too dangerous. I will not put you guys at risk; this is something I must do on my own, for Regulus." Harry said proudly.

"Right"

Harry ran back to the room of requirement and reentered the room. He looked around the room at all the dead creatures. "There were more then I had originally thought" he said to himself looking at all the dead creatures. He looked around and noticed Draco's body was missing. "Oh well not to worry about that right now" he said to himself.

Harry began walking toward the back of the room, avoiding the dead creatures as he walked. Finally he approached the back wall; he began searching along the wall for a door to the next room. He found nothing. _'Well only one thing to do then'_ he thought, and he began concentrating on what the room wanted to reveal its door. He walked all along the wall while concentrating as hard as he could, finally he figured it out, it wanted a claw from every dragon, and a fang from the basilisk. Harry slowly walked back across the room to the place where the first dragon lay dead; he used a severing charm to cut off a claw. He then proceeded to do the same with the rest of the dragons and the basilisk's fang.

After retrieving all the claws and the fang, Harry proceeded back to the wall, then he concentrated even harder to determine the order they were to go in. After figuring out the order starting with the Horntail's claw and ending with the basilisk fang, Harry stuck them into the wall one by one. After the basilisk fang was in, the door appeared. Harry went over to it and tried to open it, but it was locked. _'Now what'_ he thought. He began to concentrate really hard on whatit wanted. This time it wanted a scale from each dragon. After placing all the scales on the door, it swung open. The room behind the door was also filled with creatures.

"Great" Harry said to himself. "I'm gonna have to fight through this room alone"

"No you won't" came the voice of Ron from behind him. Harry turned around and saw Ron, Hermione and Ginny all standing there.

"I said this was too dangerous for you guys to come along especially Ginny" Harry shouted. "I will not let you come with me."

"Too bad mate, we are coming whether you like it or not." Ron said.

"STUPEFY" Harry shouted with his wand pointed at Ginny.

"PROTEGO" Ginny said, and it blocked the spell.

"We are coming" Ginny said.

"Fine I'll make a deal with you, help me clear this room, then you guys leave." Harry said.

"Agreed" Ron said with his finger crossed behind his back. Harry had been expecting something like this and had a plan once most of the creatures were down. He would stun his three friends then levitate them out of the room.

Harry walked over to the place where he had found Regulus's body and retrieved his and Regulus's invisibility cloaks then gave them Hermione and Ginny. "Why don't I get one?" Ron asked.

"Because there is only two and the girls need them more." Harry said. "Ginny, Hermione in order to attack from underneath the cloak, barely stick the tip of your wand out. That way nothing will notice a thing. Except me of course who can sense where you guys are at all times."

"Ok." They said, and they hid themselves under the cloak. Ginny and Hermione proceeded to enter the room first while Ron and Harry waited to go in. Harry and Ron waited about three seconds before going in for fear the girls would get hurt. They burst through the door and were immediately confronted by a boggart. The boggart facing Harry turned into a dementor. Harry and Ron could feel the Happiness being sucked out of them.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM" Harry shouted and a brilliant silver stag erupted from his wand and chased it away. The boggart then turned to face Ron. It turned into a giant acromantula. Ron who was extremely scared of spiders backed up a bit. Then mustering all the courage he could he yelled "RIDDIKULUS" the spider lost all its legs and started rolling all over the place, both Harry and Ron laughed, and then boom, it disappeared.

They looked around and noticed that a few of the other creatures had been stunned. "I guess the girls are doing a good job" Ron said.

"Yes they are." Harry agreed, "they are right over there" Harry said pointing to a corner that was surrounded by stunned monsters. Harry and Ron fought their way over there to meet with the girls.

"You guys seem to be doing well" Ron said.

"Well they can't see us." Ginny replied, "that's the only reason."

The rest of the creatures now noticed that Harry and Ron were there. They began to attack. Ginny and Hermione took this as a sign to help as much as they could so they threw off the cloaks so they wouldn't be so restricted while fighting. They all worked together to stop the dragons. They fought together and to their surprise Ron went down. 'This _works to my advantage'_ Harry thought, _'I can get rid of them easier this way.'_ "Hermione, Ginny" he said, "Get Ron and get out of here. I'll be fine on my own from here." And of course he was right, or at least he thought, he finished off the rest of the creatures in the room, but that was just the beginning.

Hermione and Ginny grabbed Ron and ran out of the room, he had been hit by a dragon and had a serious injury on his leg. "We need to get him to the hospital wing as quickly as we can." Hermione said.

Harry watched them leave, then he turned and faced the other side of the room, and there he saw it, the one thing he had been looking for since he arrived in the room. The dagger shined in the light. Harry walked over to it ready to take it. The dagger was just sitting there on a pedestal just ready for the taking. "That can't have been all the traps Voldemort set." He reached over and grabbed it. Nothing happened. "I guess that was it" he said.  
Suddenly the room started to shake violently Harry dropped the dagger. The spot where the dagger landed opened up wide and the dagger disappeared. "it was a fake" he said, "but it opened up another room. I guess only one thing left to do." So preparing himself for anything that was to come,he jumped into the hole. Harry slid down a tunnel which seemed like forever. When he reached the bottom, he was in a place that looked familiar, but couldn't have been. "I'm way too far away from the chamber of secrets, how can I be in it. There is no way this is it, unless of course he built this one just to hide the dagger."

The room he was in was a small stone room that looked like the little room where they had found Percy's dead body only a few days ago. There was nothing in this room, Harry wondered where he needed to go from here, but unlike the room as it was in the chamber, there was only one door. "Well I guess I need to go through that door." Harrymuttered to himself. Harry opened the door, and again found himself in a familiar room. This time it was huge and it appeared to be swarming with creatures as well, luckily Harry had grabbed a cloak before the girls took Ron and left. Harry walked out a little and turned to see that he had walked out of a giant statue of Slytherin.

"Great," he said to himself, "this room is huge and filled with creatures; I'll never find the horcrux in here." Just then he noticed something in the far right hand corner of the room. He saw a glint of light, and knew that was where the horcrux was. "Found at last" he said. "The question is, how I get there, I bet this room is swarming with traps and all the creatures pose a problem as well.

Harry slowly started across the room stunning and killing creatures on his way, as he got closer he suddenly heard something, actually it was about ten something's, all of them saying the exact same thing, "I smell blood."

Harry panicked he had no idea what to do. He had only ever dealt with one basilisk at a time. The first time, he had somebody blind it and had had a sword, and the second time he had somebody else to help boost the power of the spells. This time it was just him, and there were ten basilisks. He closed his eye and sent a couple spells at one, nothing happened. Then he had an idea. "ACCIO MIRROR" the two way mirror that Sirius had given him zoomed right into his hand. "ENGORGIO" he said pointing his wand at the mirror. The mirror grew to enormous size.

He placed the mirror out then sent spells toward the basilisk to get its attention. The basilisk zoomed in that direction right toward the mirror. Then it saw its own reflection and it became instantly paralyzed. He then proceeded to do the same thing for the other nine basilisks. The question now was, could he look them in the eyes without dying. _Harry jumped out from behind the mirror with his eyes closed, he opened his eyes and saw the two yellow eyes of the basilisk, and collapsed dead._

* * *

Draco was pacing back and forth back at spinner's end, he had failed to protect the horcrux, but he had succeeded in killing Regulus Black. What was he going to do, he couldn't go back and tell his master he had failed to protect the horcrux but he had succeeded in killing Regulus, although that was an accident, he had intended to hit Harry then heal him just to scare him off. When Regulus jumped in the way and stunned him, it made Draco a murderer, although he really wasn't. Just then his arm burned red hot.

"I can't go" he said to himself, "I'm protecting the horcrux as far as the Dark Lord knows, so I can't come." Excusing himself from telling the Dark Lord he had failed. Just then Snape apparated right by him. "Draco, don't go" he said.

"I wasn't going to." Draco replied.

"I know what happened back in the room of requirement."

"How do you know?"

"I have my ways, but you must use the skills I've taught you when you go back to the Dark Lord, become a spy for the Order just like I am."

"I thought you weren't a spy" Draco said, "you've been telling me you weren't since we left Hogwarts last year."

"I wasn't sure I could trust you yet to keep it secret, and now that you are in the same position I am, with the same skills, I knew I could trust you." Snape said

"Okay, what do we do?"

"Well we don't go this time because we are protecting the Horcruxes, but if it burns again soon it means he wants us, then we go, and we say since we left our position to come to his side, is when the Horcrux was found." Just then the Dark Mark burned again. Snape and Draco apparated to the graveyard to Lord Voldemort's side.

"Why didn't you two come when the Mark burned the first time?"

"Master, we thought it unwise to leave our posts of protecting the horcruxes as you asked." Snape said, "but now you have made it seem more urgent that we came right away, sorry master."

"Is this true Draco?" Lord Voldemort asked

"Yes master"

"In that case I will allow it because you were doing as I had previously asked, but know from now on, when the mark burns come immediately whether you are doing something for me or not.  
"Now I have something that has come to my attention, apparently we now know where the Order's headquarters are thanks to Bellatrix. We will plan out our attack and go on Christmas when they will least expect it. I will not go, it is not worth the risk, but I expect all of you to go, except for Draco and Snape who will still be guarding the Horcruxes."

* * *

Harry was standing behind the mirror after envisioning what might happen if he looked in the eyes of a dead basilisk and decided not to take the chance. He summoned birds and sent them like faux had done five years earlier to peck out their eyes. After the birds arrived all unharmed, Harry jumped out from behind the mirror. He looked up at the basilisk's all their eyes were pecked out, he was alright, he was alive.

Harry proceeded to walk across the room under the invisibility cloak just incase there was anything else that wasn't killed yet. He stunned anything he saw move on his way over to the horcrux. He finally reached it, "this can't be it can it" he thought, "I mean it was pretty easy there must be something else" Harry decided there more then likely wasn't three rooms full of creatures with 11 basilisks total, there had to be nothing else, so he grabbed the dagger, turned around then he noticed something, the floor around the entire room was erupting into flames, what was he going to do now, he had no way to get out, he was going to die here with the horcrux in his hand, but he wasn't going to give up that easily. "Accio Firebolt" he said.

_'Now what to do while I'm waiting?'_ he thought. _'Well, I'll need to survive until it gets here, but what to do._' The fire was getting closer he had no idea what to do, he watched as the mirror burnt up in the flames. He did the only thing he could think of in a time like this, he jumped up onto the pedestal where the dagger was, just before the flames reached where he was standing. The flames couldn't quite reach him on the pedestal. He stood there for what seemed like an hour, then he saw it, his broom was coming, but there was something wrong, it was on fire, and it was about half of its original length. By the time it reached him it was useless.

"Now what" he said, "there is no way I'll escape this now." Harry sat there thinking of what to do, "Well if I go down, the horcrux gets melted with me. He threw the dagger down to the ground, and the flames stopped, Voldemort was sure to make sure his horcrux wouldn't get destroyed here, but whoever took it would. He had an idea "ACCIO dagger" he said. The dagger flew back into his hand. It worked, his idea was going to work, he then threw the dagger as far toward the statue as he could. It hit the ground and the fire stopped. Harry then ran over to where the dagger was.

"Now what" he thought, "As soon as I pick up the dagger, I'm going to be enclosed in flame. No matter where I stand in the room, I will be enclosed in flames. I've failed, I can't figure this one out." One thing Harry hadn't realized is that the dagger was made of the exact same metal as the sword was, if he could just get the sword to the room he could place it on the floor and the fire wouldn't start believing it was the horcrux.

Harry paced back and forth trying to think of a way to get out of there. Harry then had an idea, he ran back to the pedestal, "Maybe the flame freezing charm will get me through here, I mean during the witch hunts that's what they did to not be hurt by fire." he said to himself. Harry cast the flame freezing charm on himself. "Accio dagger" he said, the dagger flew to him, as soon as it lifted off the ground, the flames started again.

Once the dagger was in his hand Harry jumped into the fire, he felt a warm tingle, but there was no pain, the only thing he noticed was his cloaks were burning up. Harry slowly walked toward the statue that marked his exit. Looking around him and noticing all the creatures were burning up. He reached the statue and went through the door, the floor here was also flaming. He looked for his way out, there was only one, and it was straight up. "Now how to get out of here" he thought. Then he realized it was starting to get hotter, the flame freezing charm was wearing off. "ASCENDIO" he yelled, and he shot up through the tunnel he had fallen through earlier.

A second later he was in the room where the fake horcrux was. Harry looked around this room was also on fire. The room had collapsed the doors were blocked. It was now starting to hurt. He didn't have the energy to cast the spell again so he did one last thing, he threw the knife to the ground. The fire stopped, and Harry collapsed.

* * *

**Authors Note: Please Review! Thanks for reading :)**


	17. The Tail Of The Worm

**Chapter 17  
The tail of the worm  
**  
A little boy with brown hair and a rat like face is sitting at his kitchen table after just receiving a letter from an owl. He was scared, he had never seen such a thing, no one in his family was a wizard, nor did he know any. He was frightened to open the letter, but reluctantly he did it.

_Mr. Peter Pettigrew _

We are glad to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; we look forward to seeing you on September the first for our welcome ceremonies. Enclosed is a list of school supplies that you will need, as well with instructions to get to the train.

Sincerely Albus Dumbledore  
Headmaster

"A school for wizards" he thought, "What kind of prank is this, I bet my brother put some people up to it. I know there is no such thing as magic. But, I'll go along with his joke to get him back by faking I believe the whole thing."

Peter opened the letters that were enclosed; there was a list of books, and supplies he would need with the place where he could get them, and how to get in, a place known as Diagon Alley. There was also a letter concerning how to get onto the train, it said you needed to go to platform nine and three quarters, and to get onto the platform you need to run straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten.

He didn't tell his parents about the letter because he didn't want to get him in trouble, but he figured since he lived within walking distance of both the address of Diagon Alley and King's Cross Station, he would go with his brother and then tell him he was stopping off at "Diagon Alley" to make his brother believe that Peter had fallen for the prank, then after his brother disappeared he would run off to the library grab some books, then whittle a stick down to look like a wand, and tell his brother he had gotten the stuff for his "new" school.

It was currently June 14 so he figured he had a few weeks before he had to do anything. After a week of enjoying summer break Peter decided to put his plan into motion. He grabbed his brother and told him he needed to go shopping to get his supplies for school, and asked that his brother would go with him. His brother agreed, and Peter took him down to the place where Diagon Alley is suppose to be, behind a pub called The leaky cauldron, which he had never heard of.

Upon arriving at the address he looked up and noticed the sign for the pub. "Wow it's actually here" he thought, "my brother is being more elaborate then he has ever been." "This is where I need to go" Peter said to his brother Andy.

"There's nothing here though," Andy said, "how are you going to get something here?"

"Can you not see the sign for the Leaky Cauldron, the pub I need to go behind to get into Diagon Alley?" Peter said.

"Ok Pete, I think it's time to get you home, you are making things up again." Andy said.

"Didn't you send me the letter telling me all about this stuff?" Peter asked

"Letter? I didn't send you a letter." Peter then took the letter out of his pocket and showed it to his brother. His brother took it and read. "Not me, it actually looks genuine."

"He's playing a trick on me now" Peter thought, "Oh well lets play along."

"That guy has a weird name, what kind of name is Albus? Who would give their child a name like that?" Andy said. Andy then looked up and noticed something he hadn't seen before, a sign that read "The Leaky Cauldron" "Hey Pete, what do you know the pub is here after all. Let's check this out."

"Ok, Now I know he is pranking me." Peter thought, "Alright" he said. The two then entered the pub, it was quite different then anything they had ever seen, and so were the people, the people were wearing bright colored cloaks and drinking things such as Butter Beer, and Fire whiskey. "Ok Andy" Peter said, "This is getting old, you really put a lot of work into this."

"I told you Pete, I didn't send you that letter. Let's ask somebody where we go to get to Diagon Alley." Andy said. Andy looked around the room and found somebody that looked knowledgeable; he was an old man with a white beard and hair that went halfway down his back. He was wearing a blue cloak and had half moon spectacles. He reminded Andy of Merlin from stories he had heard.

"Excuse me sir," Andy said, "can you tell my brother and I how to get to Diagon Alley?"

"Ahh, it is very simple, come with me, do you have your letter from Hogwarts?" The old man said.

"No, but my brother does, he got the letter about a week ago." Andy said.

"May I see the letter?" The old man asked Peter.

"Yes sir." Peter handed the man the letter and he opened and took out the part that said how to get into Diagon Alley. He handed that back to Peter.

"That is all you will need, now just go back through this door behind me, and you will see a room, and with that letter see the bricks you need to tap. In fact, I think I may come with you, I need to get some things, and I'm sure you could use the tour."

The old man took them into the back room where they could see the bricks that needed to be tapped to get in, he tapped them and stepped back, the bricks started moving revealing what seemed to be a shopping center behind, it was packed with all sorts of weird shops for things they had never heard of. The people were all in cloaks of different colors, the little kids were running down the alley to a small store, they were talking and Peter caught a little of what they said.

"Did you hear?" one little boy with shaggy black hair who appeared to be about Peter's age, "They have a new model out, it's suppose to be faster then anything ever."

Peter had no idea what they were talking about, but supposed it was something to do with transportation. He looked down the street and saw a huge white building that seemed to be extremely well protected. "Sir" he asked the old man, "what is that building down the street" he said pointing to it.

"That's Gringotts bank." He said, "that's where we need to go first, to get you some money to buy your supplies. The old man took them to the bank where Peter and his brother were surprised to see Goblins, and that the money was different, gold galleons, silver sickles, and bronze knuts. Peter was all very curious to this whole place. The old man took them to Madame Malkin's Robe's for all occasions, Ollivanders wand shop, and Flourish and Blotts to get him everything he needed.

"I need to go" the old man said, "it was nice to meet you Mr. Pettigrew. I expect to get to know you a lot better very soon." Then the old man called his phoenix, and grabbed his tail and disappeared.

Peter looked at his list and realized he still needed a cauldron, and dragon hide gloves, but he had no idea where to get them. Then he saw that same little boy who was talking about broomsticks earlier carrying a bunch of supplies. "Excuse me" Peter said, "can you tell me where I need to go to get a cauldron and dragon hide gloves?"

"Yes come with me, I was headed there now." He said. The young boy led Peter and his brother to the Apothecary. "This is it, you get everything you need for potions class in here, except the book of course. Is this your first year to Hogwarts?"

"Yes, I suppose so; nobody in my family has ever gone before."

"So you're a muggle born then?"

"What's a muggle born?" Peter asked.

"A witch or wizard born to non-magic parents." The boy replied.

"Then I suppose I am, and what are you?"

"I'm a pureblood, the name is James Potter. How bout you?"  
"Name is Peter Pettigrew. I overheard you talking about something earlier, about something being the fastest yet, what was that?" Peter asked.

"Oh, a broomstick, it's a pity they won't let us first years have our own broomsticks, but I will be getting one next year, my family can get it for me for my birthday next year. Speaking of family, I need to get home, So I guess I'll see you on September first."

Peter finished getting the supplies he needed in diagon alley, and found a place and bought a trunk to put them in. Then he and Andy carried the load home. He was worried what his parents would say to all of this. When he told his parents, they were excited. When September first came, his parents were glad to take him to king's cross station to send him off.

Peter found himself on platform nine and three quarters, laughing at himself for ever believing it was a prank. He stared at the beautiful scarlet steam engine, before boarding it. Once on the train he went looking for a place to sit, he found a cabin that had only one other occupant, a young boy with greasy black hair and a hook nose.

"May I sit here?" Peter asked.

"I guess" The young boy said.

"My name is Peter Pettigrew; this is my first year to Hogwarts."

"Mine as well, my name is Severus Snape."

"Nobody in my family has ever gone to hogwarts, I'm the first."

"GET OUT YOU FILTHY MUDBLOOD" Snape said. "How dare you contaminate me with your presence!

Peter ran out of the cabin scared. "This is going to be just like regular school" Peter thought, "Everybody is going to hate me because I'm different." Peter began looking for a new cabin to sit in. He found one that had two other occupants, both his age. He heard them talking,  
"So Remus," the young boy with black hair said, "what house do you think you'll get?"

"Well, most of my family has been in Gryffindor, so probably that Gryffindor. What about you Sirius?"

"Well, I hope it isn't based on family, my entire family has been in Slytherin, and I'm nothing like my family, I would want to be in Gryffindor." Sirius then noticed Peter out of the corner of his eye, "come in, join us" he said, "My name is Sirius Black, and that there is Remus Lupin."

"I'm Peter Pettigrew." Peter said, as he entered the cabin, "I'm the first one in my family to ever come to Hogwarts, what are these houses you are talking about?"

"At Hogwarts, there are four houses," Sirius started, "the first years are sorted into these four houses at the beginning of the year, the houses act as a 'family' while we are at school. The houses are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. Each house usually has unique characteristics of their students. Ravenclaw is known for being intelligent, Hufflepuff for loyalty, Gryffindor for bravery, and Slytherin for cunning. But there are also other things the houses are known for, well mainly Slytherin and Gryffindor. Slytherin is known for people usually thinking they are superior and can be a bit angry, Gryffindor, well is mainly more known for a certain person that was in the house, Albus Dumbledore, the current headmaster, and greatest wizard that ever lived."

"Wow," Peter said, "I think I'd like Gryffindor over any of those, back at my old school, everybody always picked on me and called me a coward, it would be nice to be in a house of brave people." Just then a young boy with shaggy black hair walked in behind Peter, Sirius jumped up.

"James, I was wondering when you were going to find us, this is Remus Lupin, he seems really nice, and this is…"

"Peter Pettigrew, we've met already, back at diagon alley, It's nice to see you again Peter, Sirius and I have been friends for years, both our families are pureblood's so we ran into each other while visiting Hogwarts, and became great friends."

They all sat and talked the rest of the way to Hogwarts. They got off the train and heard a booming voice, "first years this way" said the man who was twice as tall as a normal man, and about five times as wide. The four of them followed the giant man to the edge of the lake and saw lots of boats, "Four to a boat" the giant man said. The four then climbed into one of the boats, and the sailed across the lake.

After reaching the castle, all the first years were greeted by a Stern looking woman. "I am Professor Minerva McGonagall," she said, "if you will follow me into the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses." She then proceeded to tell them the exact same thing about houses that Sirius had told Peter on the train.

"Told you so" Sirius said everybody laughed that Sirius knew this speech word for word.

Professor McGonagall then led them into the Great Hall where they were sorted into their houses. The a's went quickly, and pretty soon it was Sirius' turn, Sirius looked over at the Slytherin table where he had family sitting there, then went up and sat on the stool, while they placed the sorting had on his head, the hat took a while, deliberating between Gryffindor and Slytherin. After about five minutes the hat finally shouted "Gryffindor" Sirius sighed in relief. The rest of the class was finally sorted, and the four friends that had ridden the train together were all in Gryffindor.

Peter was excluded from most things by the other three, just because he wasn't as skilled as they were, they would be off practicing more advanced magic, as Peter watched from a distance. Nobody would allow Peter to hang out with them, except for James, Sirius, and Lupin. Peter learned slowly but was able to keep up with most in his class, all except for the advanced few, such as James, Sirius, and Lupin, and a few other from other houses.

As the year went by, James, Sirius, and Peter noticed that Lupin would disappear once a month. Strangely enough it was always around the time of the full moon. He always claimed he was sick, but they didn't believe him, eventually they figured out what was going on, Lupin was a werewolf, and they took him to the shrieking shack to transform so everybody would be safe. One night around Halloween, they confronted him about it.

"Lupin, where do you really go once a month, when you're 'sick' it wouldn't be the shrieking shack would it?" James asked.

"Shrieking shack, that place is haunted, I wouldn't go there even if…"

"You were a werewolf?" Sirius asked.

"Now, that's crazy." Lupin said.

"Don't play dumb with us Remus, we aren't stupid, we figured it out. You always leave around the time of the full moon, you always look a little weak afterwards, and a werewolves howl would make a building sound like it was haunted." James said.

"Just be straight forward with us." Sirius said.

"Ok, fine, but you can't tell anybody. If people found out I'd be kicked out of school." Lupin said.

"So now all we need is a way to hang out with you while you are a werewolf, but you'd attack us unless we could control you." Sirius said.

Peter then spoke up, "What if we became animagi? Then we could turn into animals and run around the school with him. And if we become big enough animals, we can keep him under control."

"That's a great idea, but that will take years."

The three all practiced becoming animagi for the next few years, and by their third year they had become animals. Sirius had become a large black dog, James had become a magnificent stag, and Peter had become a small little rat.

"It's good one of you is small," Lupin said, "somebody will need to hit the knot on the whomping willow to demobilize it."

Years went by and it was now the seventh year in Hogwarts. For Peter, years of despair, of always being looked down on and having very few friends, who now at times scared him, and he barely saw them anymore since Sirius and Remus were trying to prevent James from doing something stupid, to Severus Snape. Even though none of them liked him, they didn't want James to be expelled, and with Peter being slower then the others, it was hard for him to keep up with them, although he always enjoyed the nights of the full moon, when they would explore the castle, they now were finishing up a magical map of the grounds. They knew every entrance and exit to the castle.

He was friends with them because they were powerful, and they protected him from day one, when he was kicked out of a compartment for being a muggle born, and they had invited him to sit with them. Now they were scaring him, he had been a little annoying to them, and now they were being a little meaner to him, and they were suppose to be his friends. But, he needed all the protection he could get, he wasn't a very powerful wizard, and didn't have any friends; he always went to those more powerful then him.

They were all about to take their N.E.W.T.S in a few weeks, and James had the grades for being an Auror, and Sirius and Lupin were well set to go into whatever they wanted as well. Peter on the other hand barely had the grades to get out of the school. He knew he needed to stay with them to be protected throughout his life. He stayed with them for the next few years as they each began working for a career, which work was tragically cut short by the emergence of a man calling himself Lord Voldemort, all four joined the Order of the Phoenix, which was started by their former headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.

Then one day, Peter saw the power of this Lord Voldemort, and knew if he really wanted protection he must go to him, but he needed to keep it secret, so as not to lose his few friends. One night, Peter left the headquarters early, and went searching for Voldemort, being in the Order, he knew who some of the death eaters were, and figured if he could find them, he could find Voldemort. Peter started his search by going to the Malfoy's house.

Peter knocked on the door, a few seconds later, Narcissa came to the door. "What do you want?" she asked him.

"I'm looking for your husband; I'd like to speak with him." Peter said.

"I know you are on the side against Voldemort, I will not let you see my husband." Narcissa said.

"Ah, but that is why I am here, I wish to change sides, become a spy for Lord Voldemort. I find it best to be on the correct side of the war." Peter said.

"Find, I will get my husband, but be warned, try anything, and he will kill you on the spot."

Narcissa went back into the house and retrieved her husband. She told him what was going on, and to have his wand ready just in case. After all, she didn't want to be widowed so young. When Lucius arrived at the door, he had his wand drawn ready to attack.

"Please" Peter said, "take me to your master, that I may join him."

"Hand me your wand first." Lucius said. Peter did as he was told. "follow me" Peter and Lucius walked away from his house. Lucius then stopped and picked up an old can lying on the ground. "PORTUS" he said. "grab on" Again Peter did as he was told. They disappeared; Peter felt like he was flying through the air, a moment later they were in a graveyard. "Follow me" Lucius said again. Peter followed him up to a large house.

"This is where it all began" Lucius said. "This is the house where Lord Voldemort was born."

Peter just walked quietly behind him, looking around at everything. Fearing for what might happen if his friends found out he did this. Peter took in the house, it was huge. Voldemort's parents must have been rich, he thought.

"Go inside and up the stairs. Once up stairs proceed down the hallway to the room on the far end, once there, knock twice. That will signify to him you want to join him. Wait until he says 'enter' once that is said, enter the room, and bow down and kiss the hem of his robes. That will prove your loyalty to him. He will then ask you a series of questions, answer honestly; the Dark Lord knows when you are lying."

Peter again did as he was asked. He went inside and walked slowly up the stairs. The house was dark, and Peter swore he saw a snake slithering in the shadows. Once up the stairs he proceeded down the long dark hallway, he looked down at the end of the hallway, it was long, and again he swore he saw a snake enter the room. Then he heard the snake hissing. It's talking to him he thought. Peter reached the doorway, and knocked twice.

Inside the room, the dark lord was conversing with his snake Nagini. "You were right; he isn't one of mine, yet. Apparently he would like to be though."

"Shall I scare him?" Nagini hissed.

"That won't be necessary."

Peter heard all that hissing, and wondered if the Dark Lord really could understand the snake, and speak its language. He started realizing just how powerful the Dark Lord really was, he became over excited. Just then he heard a voice from inside. "Enter" Peter slowly opened the door and walked in. He bowed down then went over and kissed the hem of the Dark Lord's robes.

"Now, why did you come here?" The Dark Lord asked.

"I wanted to join you, my Lord." Peter answered.

"Why now, why not when I first began."

"My friends fooled me into believing you were wrong."

"Don't lie to me, now tell me why now?"

"Because of your power master."

"So tell me, why should I allow you to become a death eater?"

"Because I can be a spy for you, tell you what the Order is going to do."

"Somebody will find out, and you will die, and what good would that do me, I might as well just kill you now."

"No, master, you can teach me to hide it, I know you can."

"Fine, I will teach you tonight, if you tell me what the order is up too."

"They are assembling an army as large as they can, of all sorts of creatures, they started tonight, I was supposed to be going to the giants, but I wanted to join you. They expect me to be gone for a week. I have time to learn master."

"You seem scared Peter, why are you scared."

"My friends, if they find out they will kill me. James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin."

"Let's begin Peter."

The dark lord trained him for the entire week, how to fight, and how to guard his mind. After the week was over, Peter returned to the Order. Upon his arrival he found out that his friend James was getting married, to the girl he liked back at Hogwarts, Lily Evans. The wedding was to be that week. Sirius was to be best man, and Remus and Peter to be the groom's men.

The wedding went off well, and nobody suspected anything of Peter being a spy for Voldemort. The dark mark on his arm burned. Since he was alone, he left to be at the side of his master.

"Peter," Lord Voldemort said, "I want to know every move Dumbledore makes. Whether it is Order related or not."

"Yes master, I will let you know as soon as I do."

"You may go back, Peter."

"Thank you master." Peter said, and he kissed the hem of his master's robe before going back to headquarters.

A few months passed, and Peter had information on Dumbledore to tell his master. Dumbledore was going to interview a new teacher for Hogwarts. A teacher one of the death eaters had had a few experiences with as a kid. Sybill Trelawney. Peter told his master what was going to happen, and Voldemort decided to send a spy to listen and watch Dumbledore.

"Peter you are doing well, please inform me of anything else that is going on with him."

"Well, he is getting ready to go back to Hogwarts to resume his position as headmaster. He also says they still need a new defense against the dark arts teacher. Mentioned he has needed one every year for a while now."

"Is that it Peter?"

"That's all I can think of right now."

"Very well, you may go."

A few days later Peter was sitting in the kitchen of headquarters, when his arm burned. He quickly got up and left he told everybody he was going to go take a nap, he went up to his room and apparated to the Dark Lord's side. "Peter, during the interview, we got part of a prophecy, we didn't get it all, all I know is that the one person with the power to defeat me will be born next month to parents who have defied me three times, that's only two families, the Potters and the Longbottom's. Tell me which of those families is expecting a child, and when."

"Both master, and both at the end of the month."

"Then I must choose which one I believe it is, what are their bloodlines?"

"Well, Potter would be a half-blood, and Longbottom would be a pureblood."

"Thank you Peter. Let me know if they plan to do anything with the families, I am sure since the prophecy was made to Dumbledore, he will be planning something to protect both families."

"Well I did hear something about the fidelius charm."

"In that case, I want you to make sure you become the Potter's secret keeper."

"But they will surely pick Sirius Black."

"Don't allow that to happen."

"I'll do it master, I will not let you down."

"If you do, it will be your life."

Peter went back to headquarters and searched Sirius out, a couple months had past, and little Harry Potter was now about four months old. They were keeping him in headquarters for now as well as little Neville Longbottom.

"The Potters are planning on moving their son to their house aren't they?" Peter said.

"Yes they are, but Dumbledore won't let them do it for at least another couple months." Sirius said.

"They are planning on making you secret keeper aren't they?"

"Yes they are, how did you know?"

"Well, you are his godfather so it only makes sense that they would choose you. Which also means that Lord Voldemort would also suspect they had made it you? I would think you need to talk them out of it so Voldemort doesn't know who to go after."

"I see what your saying, be smarter then Voldemort, choose somebody he would never suspect. Somebody, somebody like you Peter, I will tell them to make it you." Sirius went and told the Potter's his idea and the reasoning for it, the Potter's agreed.

"Peter," James said, "We want to make you our secret keeper because Voldemort wouldn't suspect you meaning you we wouldn't ever be revealed. That is if you want to be Peter."

"Of course I'll do it for you James, you were my first real friend ever." Peter said.

A few months passed, and the Potter's were ready to take their son home, they had Dumbledore cast the spell, and they made Peter the secret keeper. Harry was now about a year old, that night Peter went to his master unannounced.

"Master it worked, the Potter's have made me their secret keeper."

"Excellent, I will go tonight, now tell me where they are." Peter told him and then left. Later that night, their were rumors that Voldemort died, and that it was Peter's fault the Dark Lord fell. Peter knew that the death eaters would be after him so he started to run away. After a few minutes of running, he was caught by an old friend, Sirius Black.

"Peter you told him, how could you have told him, it's all my fault for telling the Potter's to make you secret keeper, and now they are dead, well you are about to join them. Just then Peter cast the killing curse behind his back and cut off a finger as he transformed into the rat he was. Sirius just sat there laughing as all the muggles watched him, they had just seen him murder thirteen people.

Peter went into hiding with a wizard family, who turned out to have seven red haired children, one about Harry's age, he had seen the parents at headquarters every once in a while, but nobody but James, Sirius and Lupin knew he was an animagi. He could hide here until his master returned.

Years passed, and Scabbers, as Peter was know called, was in his second child's hand in the family. His new owner's name was Ron, and Ron was best friends with Harry Potter, and had been for almost three years now. Then one night, it was revealed by Remus Lupin who was defense against the dark arts teacher, and Sirius Black who had escaped from Azkaban, that Scabbers was no ordinary rat, that he in fact was human. Peter escaped that night and returned to his master who he heard was still out there, that he wasn't dead he just didn't have a body. Harry Potter had saved his life that day, and now Peter owed him.

The current Peter Pettigrew lay in his bed thinking of everything that happened because of him, and of what he needed to do to repay Harry. He decided, he would wait until Harry was ready to attack Lord Voldemort, then on that day Peter would sacrifice himself to save Harry. So that the Dark Lord would fall, once and for all.

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**Authors Note: _If you are reading, please make comments, good or bad, I like to see what you guys think. Thanks guys _**


	18. Christmas At The House Of Black

**Chapter 18  
Christmas at the House of Black  
**  
Ron, Hermione and Ginny were now frantic; they hadn't seen Harry in almost three days. They told McGonagall that he was out and that he needed to extend what he was doing. Now they were worried, for some reason they couldn't get back into the Room of Requirement. They had no idea why, but the room automatically locked itself once the horcrux was removed from its pedestal. The only way to open it now was to speak parsel tongue as you were walking around, and since none of the three knew that or could speak it, they couldn't get in.

Inside the room, Harry was still lying unconscious he had been there for three days the fire had really got to him, and the freezing charm had taken a lot out of him. He finally woke a day later, he didn't realize how long it had been, the last thing he remembered was throwing the knife down to stop the fire. The question now was did he have enough strength to cast the freezing charm again, and to make it out of the room. Harry summoned all his strength and cast he freezing charm on himself. He bent over picked up the knife, then realized he was trapped. He put the knife back down. "REDUCTO" he yelled, and a huge place of the debris flew back into the first room, big enough for him to make it through. He noticed the room was starting to cave in, this was his last chance. He bent over picked up the knife again and ran for the opposite side of the room, once there he dove threw the small hole he had created.

He was now in the room where he had started, the floor here was not on fire. He searched the room for Draco's invisibility cloak knowing he was going to need it to get back without everybody seeing him. His clothes and invisibility cloak had burnt up in the fire. He couldn't find it. There was only one choice left for him, and it would take a powerful bit of magic to do it. He needed to cast the disillusionment charm on himself so he would be like a chameleon. Harry took all the energy he had and cast the charm on himself. He then continued on his way to the other side of the room and walked out the door. Harry ran back to his dormitory and threw on some clothes then removed the charm from himself.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny were still in McGonagall's office explaining that they had lied to McGonagall and that they were worried about Harry, they knew something had happened. Just then there was a knock on Professor McGonagall's door. "Enter" she said. Harry walked threw the door.

"You're alive" Ginny yelled, and she ran over and hugged and kissed Harry.

"Yeah, you guys only left me a couple hours ago."

"Umm, Harry we left you four days ago, we tried coming back for you but we couldn't get into the room. Hermione said.

"I've been gone four days?"

"Yes you have." Hermione said.

"Mr. Potter, would you like to inform me of where you were for the past four days?" McGonagall said.

"Minerva, let's not ask where Harry was." Came a voice from above, it was Dumbledore's portrait.

"Fine Mr. Potter, you are excused for the past few days. Christmas break starts tomorrow, I expect to see you back at headquarters for Christmas."

"Yes Professor, and I was wondering if we could have Regulus's funeral while we are on break. He died protecting me a couple days ago."

"Of course Potter, and I think it would be great to bury him at his former house."

With Christmas break starting, and since everybody knew the school may be unsafe, everybody was going home. The DA was all invited to go to the House of Black for Christmas if they wanted, Neville, and Luna were the only ones who accepted the invitation. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna all packed their bags and met in the great hall at noon on the first day of break. They ate lunch together then headed to the house of black.

Once there they were greeted by the rest of the Order. Harry had sent Regulus's body a couple day's in advance. Remus was the first one to speak to him.

"Harry, I need to talk to you for a minute if I can."

"Of course Lupin" Harry said. Harry followed Lupin out of the kitchen and upstairs to the room where Harry had stayed two years previous at the beginning of his fifth year.

"Harry, I would like to discuss something with you." Lupin said, "with your parents, Sirius, and Dumbledore all dead now, that places me in charge of you since you are of age and even though you are of age, and I can't force you to do anything, I will act as a parent when you need one. I will also give you advice and my opinion on things when I feel it will benefit you."

"Ok Lupin, sounds good, may I go now?"

"Not yet, I feel that you shouldn't go back to school after Christmas break is over. I know that you found the Horcrux that was there and I see no reason for you to go back now. There are spells that I can teach you so you receive all your lessons here if you want. That way you still learn everything you would at school, but have the protection of the Order with you, and of course as always, your friends are welcome to stay as well. I want you to think about it during break and let me know before break is over."

"I will, and Lupin stay out of my head, or at least teach me Occlumency."

"Agreed, I'll teach you during break. Oh and Harry, what have you done with the dagger?"

"Nothing yet, haven't had the chance."

"Well in that case we will figure that out as well during break. Let's get back to the rest of the group, Christmas is in a few days and we should be celebrating now."

Harry and Lupin joined the rest of the group for dinner that night. The funeral for Regulus would be in the morning. After dinner, everybody wanted to catch up on what was going on, and find out how much longer before the Order could launch an attack. Harry was in the middle of explaining he would let them know when they could attack when an owl burst into the kitchen and dropped a letter on Remus's lap.

Remus opened it and read, after reading it; he said "We need to leave here after the funeral tomorrow. Don't ask questions I will explain when I can, as for now, everybody needs to go pack their bags. Harry, I'm going to need your help with something if you can come with me."

Harry followed Remus out the door and upstairs. "What is it this time Lupin?"

"Harry, I'm going to tell you something and you must promise me you will keep it secret."

"Ok, I promise."

"I'm not going to be taking my potion tonight, the full moon is in a couple days, I'll need you to stop me from taking the potion I have my reasons for not taking it. Also, Harry I won't be coming with you guys tomorrow."

"What do you mean you won't be coming with us tomorrow? We don't even know where we are going without you."

"That's just it Harry, if nobody knows where to go, then NOBODY will know where you are at." Lupin said.

"I don't get what you are trying to say."

"The reason everybody is leaving and I won't be taking my potions for the next few days the death eaters know where we are, they are planning an attack on Christmas day. As a werewolf I will be more dangerous then what they will be expecting. They expect to find a house of wizards celebrating Christmas instead of a house with just a wild werewolf."

"So in other words, to protect us from the death eaters, you are sending us off with no idea of where we are going and staying here to fight off the death eaters?"

"Exactly Harry, but you have to understand why."

"I think I get it."

"I'll need you to make sure everybody gets out."

"I'll do it." Harry agreed, "but I'm going to help you."

"No Harry, you won't be safe if I'm a werewolf. I need you to promise me you won't stay or come back."

"I promise," Harry lied. Harry was planning on getting the DA to hang back and surprise the Death Eaters after they surprised the Order. They would wait a while, knowing that the death eaters would attack at night.

Harry told the DA about his plan that night. "Harry," Hermione said, "if Lupin doesn't want us there, then I'm sure he has a good reason. We aren't going."

"Besides, Mum wouldn't let me and Ginny go." Ron said.

"Well, Neville, Luna, what about you guys.' Harry said.

"Sorry Harry," Neville said, "Grandma is supposed to be joining us tomorrow I need to go home and tell her we are leaving."

"Yeah, Harry sorry," Luna said. "I agree with Hermione, if Lupin doesn't want us there then we shouldn't be there."

"Fine, I'll go by myself" Harry said. "I don't need you guys anyway you'd probably just get in my way."

The next day they held the funeral for Regulus it was a quick short ceremony since most didn't know him well. Then they all grabbed their bags and left, nobody noticed when Remus doubled back and returned to the house. The rest just blindly went where ever they allowed themselves to be led. All of them were under the disillusionment charm, so they would not be seen by muggles while flying in the daylight and the death eaters wouldn't see them either.

It got dark and they were still all flying away, everybody had borrowed a broom from the school if they didn't have their own, McGonagall had gone back to the school to get them for those who needed them. Harry took this opportunity to turn around and head back; he had his invisibility cloak with him. Nobody noticed Harry leave either.

Back at the house of black Lupin had transformed into a werewolf, he was prowling around the house. Every once in a while he would leap toward the house elf heads on the wall while passing them. Not long after, the death eaters broke into the house, ready to surprise the order, and to their surprise they were all gone. While Crabbe was looking through the house, Lupin jumped over the stairs and landed on him with his claws out, he then began to tear into him.

The rest of the death eaters hadn't heard anything eventually Crabbe was dead, and half eaten. When another death eater walked in assuming the werewolf was Greyback, he ignored it. He then began to climb the stairs and Lupin was right behind him. This time when the death eater was attacked he screamed, Lupin had him dead just as the others arrived. This time Greyback also entered the scene so the death eaters had no question that this one wasn't loyal to the Dark Lord, they all stayed back while Greyback went after him. Greyback and Lupin fought for a while eventually Lupin came away with Greyback dead; Lupin was seriously injured now and couldn't run very fast. Then one of the death eaters just decided to finish this. "AVADA KEDAVRA" He yelled and Lupin collapsed. He was dead.

Peter Pettigrew then came out, he had been leading this mission so he took charge, "There is nobody here, let's leave." The death eaters followed his orders and they all walked out the door and were disapparating away just as Harry arrived, he was able to stun one before he was able to disapparate. The rest got away, Harry landed on the ground and ran over to him, it was somebody he didn't know, but was the same death eater that had killed Lupin. Harry bound him then made his broom a portkey and sent him to the Ministry of Magic, with a note saying he was a death eater sent to them courtesy of Harry Potter.

Suddenly, Harry realized what it meant that all the death eaters were leaving, Lupin must be dead. He walked through the front door and saw two dead men, and two dead werewolves. Harry noticed one looked different then the other werewolf, it had a different look in it's eye like it had been killed by a spell instead of another werewolf. Harry went over to it and cried, the sun started to rise, and the werewolf changed back into Lupin's body. "This is the Worst Christmas ever" Harrymuttered to himself, "These death eaters are going to pay."

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**Authors Note: Hope you liked this chapter! Don't forget to REVIEW! please? Yay! I can inform you that we're just over halfway... oooh lala!**


	19. The New Headquarters

**Chapter 19  
New Headquarters**

Harry stood in the living room of Grimmauld Place, mourning over the loss of another great friend. Everybody that knew hisclosest friendswere dying, and he couldn't do anything. He lost his parents, his godfather, his headmaster, and his favorite teacher. He also lost the one person who reminded him of his godfather the one who taught him how to destroy the horcruxes. Holding the dagger in his hand, he cursed Lord Voldemort, while placing the dagger in the wall. Then mustering up all the energy he could, he screamed "REDUCTO". The dagger blew into pieces along with the whole backside of the house. Harry then turned to face the portrait of Regulus's and Sirius's mother who had been woken up by the sound of the house being blown apart. "They said there was no way to get rid of you" Harry said to himself, "but I know how." "REDUCTO" Harry screamed again, and blew her portrait to bits along with the front side of the house.

Harry then fell to his knees and cried over Lupin's dead body. He had nothing left to do but find Lupin's broom and use it to catch up to the group. He levitated Lupin's body and summoned his broom. He then started after the group, not caring about hiding himself or Lupin's body from muggle's, at this point he only wanted to get revenge. Who care's if the muggles find out, Harry wasn't going to let anybody or anything stop him. Everybody that had caused him pain was going to pay, starting with the Dursley's. Harry started on his way to Number 4 Privet Drive, he was going to make them pay for years of torture.

Back with the rest of the group, Mad Eye Moody had finally noticed that both Harry and Lupin were gone. "Anybody know where Lupin and Potter are?"

The members of the DA suddenly freaked, Harry actually had gone back to Grimmauld place. "They went back, Lupin planned it from the beginning and had told Harry he was doing it, he left Harry in charge of making sure everybody got out. I'm guessing Harry went back to help him." Ron said.

"Help him with what?" Mad Eye said.

"Well the reason Lupin told us to get out is he found out the death eaters were going to attack. He was going to surprise them when nobody was there and he was a werewolf, after all last night was the full moon." Hermione said.

"Well, I bet Lupin ripped them all to shreds as a werewolf, I'm sure he and Harry will be joining us any minute. Anybody know where we are going yet?"

"No clue?" Everybody said in turn.

Harry touched down in front of Number 4 Privet Drive. He walked up to the door and burst through it. He was hoping all the noise would alert the Dursley's and make them panic. He walked to the kitchen where he was sure he would find them for their usual Christmas breakfast. To his surprise they weren't there. He checked the living room, figuring they had finished breakfast and were now panicking in the living room, they weren't there either. He searched the entire house and didn't find them. Then as he was leaving the house he decided to look in the one place he never expected them to be, his old bedroom, the cupboard under the stairs. It was locked like it always had been when Harry had resided there. He unlocked and opened the door, then to his surprise his Uncle's body fell to the floor. He looked in the closet his Aunt and cousin where in there as well both dead, the death eaters had already beat him to it. Apparently the Dursley's had heard the death eaters apparate outside and hid in the cupboard, they had made a noise and the death eaters opened the cupboard and asked where Harry was, when they couldn't answer, they killed them.

Harry now had no family, he was losing everybody that had ever taken care of him. Then Harry realized, the Weasley's were next. They were gifted wizards and were usually with one or more of the order members, so he felt they were safe, but he still wanted to protect them. He would be the secret keeper for the new headquarters wherever it would be, and would tell the Weasley's to stay there at all times, and to have one or more members of the order with them when leaving. Harry was wondering where to find the group maybe they had found a place for headquarters, and then Harry realized the perfect place for headquarters Godric's Hollow, his parents old house. He went there immeadiately and found that Hedwig knew every move Harry was going to make and was already there. He quickly scratched a note to Mad Eye telling him where headquarters were and what had happened to Lupin and the Dursley's.

When Hedwig reached Mad Eye and the rest of the group who were still blindlessly flying to who knows where. They landed, and Mad Eye took and opened the letter. He quickly read it outloud to the group.

_Professor Moody, Lupin has been killed by death eaters, I got there too late to help him. I managed to catch one death eaters as he was trying to escape and I took him to the ministry. I then found Lupin's body in the form of a warewolf, which at sunset transformed back into his human form. But I have found the new location for headquarters, someplace they would never expect, mainly because it has been used before. I will be the secret keeper so nobody finds out where it is. I would like to request that the entire order and that the DA, the group of students I teach defense against the dark arts and Hogwarts, stay there as often as possible. Meet me, at Grimmauld Place, and I will lead you there. I have already cast the fidelius charm on the building, so you will need me to get in anyways._

_Harry Potter_

"You heard the boy, let's get to Grimmauld place."

"Right" Hermione said, "I'll contact the rest of the DA, when we find out where the new headquarters are, and tell them where to meet Harry to be able to get in." The group then started on their way back to Grimmauld place, they went as fast as they could. "Wait" Hermione yelled, "Now that we know where we are going can't we just apparate, and those too young can side apparate with the others?"

"Good Point" Mad eye replied.

Harry was waiting for them back at Grimmauld Place when he heard a lot of popping sounds. "Oh no," he thought, "the death eaters have come back to destroy the place." Then he realized who it was. "It's good to see you all again, in case you haven't noticed, the place is destroyed, I did that it was an accident, I didn't realize I had put that much power into it. I was destroying the horcrux and blew off the back side of the house where I had been standing over Lupin's body. That woke up Sirius's mother's portrait, then I blew the front side of the house up getting her to shut up."

"Harry do you realize you destroyed this house better then Voldemort ever destroyed anything? That's some power." Mad Eye said.

"No I hadn't realized that." Harry said. He took out a piece of paper and handed it to Mad Eye, who then passed it to the rest of the group. They each read the piece of paper which read, The headquarters for the order of the phoenix can be found at the Potter house in Godric's Hollow. "Is everybody ready to go now?" Then Harry realized somebody was missing, "Where is Professor McGonagall?"

"She went back to school, and called all the other teachers to go with her. Let's go to headquarters." Mad Eye said.

They all apparated to Godric's Hollow once there they entered to find the room where Harry had found the book, and other things still revealed along with the house still a huge mess. "Well it's not really neat, but at least they will never think to look here." Harry said, "and we can clean it up."

"Let's get started cleaning then." Hermione said.

"Right," Ron said, "come on everybody we'll clean then celebrate Christmas a little later."

The group cleaned all day sorting through debris that had been left by Voldemort's attack. Harry realized he had done more damage to the House of Black then Voldemort had done to his house. After hours of cleaning up, and finding old pictures of James and Lily, Harry decided to take a break and go downstairs into the room only he could enter. He looked around the room and saw everything was still in the place he had seen it last. He went through and found old text books his parents had used in school. He flipped through one called, "Defending Against Intruders: A guide to Occlumency" Harry decided this one would be useful for him learning occlumency and eventually teaching it to the DA.

Harry returned upstairs to find it spotless, not a piece of debris anywhere, nor a speck of dust. "Wow, you guys all did a great job, I'm very pleased with you."he said, "sorry I didn't help much, but I went downstairs to look over some of my parents old things, to see if maybe I could remember them."

"Harry, you mentioned you wanted the DA to stay here, when are you going to notify them of where we are at?" Hermione asked.  
"Schedule a meeting for the first day back from break. We will tell them then. We should be fine at school, although Lupin told me I shouldn't go back and neither should you." Harry said.

Hermione did as she was told and let the entire DA know there would be a meeting the first night back from break which was in a week and a half. She got out the coin that had originally been Harry's, they had swapped because Hermione was more responsible with it, and set the date and time for the next meeting which would cause everybody else's to change and burn red. The group then enjoyed the rest of the day celebrating Christmas, even though the day was almost over.

The next day they had a funeral ceremony for Lupin, in the nearest cemetery. They happened to stumble upon James and Lily's graves and decided to bury Lupin next to them. The funeral was a sad time, and everybody said a little about Lupin after all, he was always there with the Order, rarely leaving headquarters, and had been a teacher to the younger ones. After the funeral they all went to enjoy dinner together. About halfway through dinner they realized Harry wasn't there. "Anybody seen Harry?" Mrs Weasley asked, who had arrived that afternoon with her husband and kids, "I'd imagine this would be really hard on him, being in the house where his parents were killed."

"He's probably in the basement, the one place he can go without anybody bothering him. He probably went there to look through old pictures of his family." Hermione said.

"Well, I guess he will be fine there." Molly said.

The rest of break was very similar to that night, Harry was always disappearing into the basement, in fact people rarely saw him after Lupin's funeral. They just assumed he was in the basement reminiscing about his family. When in fact he was teaching himself Occlumency, the book was an excellent way for him to learn exactly what he needed to do to close his mind, but it still couldn't teach him if he were doing it. He decided that he wasn't ever going to teach this to the DA because it would be so hard.

None of the teachers ever showed up at Godric's Hollow, of course none of them knew where headquarters were now. Although it did surprise Harry that none of them sent letters asking where headquarters were. On the last day of break, the six members of the DA that had been there packed their things and were ready to go back to school. When they arrived at school the next day, they had an hour before the DA meeting was suppose to start. They all went and placed the bags in their respective dormitories. Harry then went early to the room of requirement and was surprised to find that most of the members were already there waiting for him. Professor McGonagall then walked up to them and asked what they were doing, Harry noticed something was wrong, quickly he nonverbally cast, DISTINGINA, after a few seconds he realized what. Professor McGonagall began to walk away after getting a satisfying answer from one of the students who had said, "Waiting for others to go eat dinner."

Harry then got the groups attention, with most of them being younger then him, they didn't know that spell, and were fooled. "That's not the real McGonagall" Harry said. Just then Neville, Ron, Hermione and Ginny came running up. "Harry, the teachers aren't themselves." Hermione said.

"Well, looks like our DA meeting has to be cancelled, but to let you all know for future reference where DA meetings will be held since it appears the school is no longer safe." Harry passed them a piece of paper telling them where Order headquarters were. He then took the piece of paper back and burnt it. "That is where all DA meetings will be held from now on, you'll find it trust me, but as for now, the older ones come with me, and the younger ones go in the room of requirement, we will come get you when it's safe. "Dean, stay with the younger ones, I'll need somebody that can do the spell Distingina, to tell if somebody is real or not. I'm going to write to Mad Eye and have him come get you guys and take you to headquarters."

The rest of the DA all drew their wands and went roaming the halls looking for teachers. They encountered Professor Flitwick first, "We know you're a fake," Harry said.

"Well, in that case" squeaked the imposter flitwick, "you will die... AVADA KEDAVRA" The spell hit Seamus square in the chest and he fell over, dead.

The noise attracted the attention of the other teachers around and they all came seeing what was happening they too quit the act and began attacking students. Harry and the DA attacked quickly and got the fake teachers stunned and bound, without losing another student.

"We've taken down, the fake Flitwick, the fake Trelawney, and the fake Dippet. I bet every teacher is fake, we need to take them all down." Harry said. The group quickly ran around the castle looking for teachers taking them down one at a time. After they had taken down every teacher but McGonagall and Hagrid, who they hadn't found yet, they slowed down. The entered the great hall, it was full of students, along with Professor's McGonagall and Hagrid sitting at the teachers table. They were the fakes and upon seeing the DA enter began killing students who were already in there. The quickly took down McGonagall, well the imposter Hagrid ran away. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all ran after him.

They finally caught up with the imposter right outside Hagrid's hut. Then the imposter began to speak, "So, you figured it out so quickly, huh Potter, I guess you are stronger then the Dark Lord thought, well, it's too bad we've killed all the teachers already, they never saw us coming, and we took plenty of hair for polyjuice potion. I guess I'm the last one since you all are focusing on me, but don't forget some students stayed over break as well."

Furious that they had killed Hagrid, Harry again summoned all his strength and screamed "REDUCTO" it knocked the fake Hagrid into his house so hard that the house broke apart and flew into the lake. They went over and took his pulse after the attack. "Dead" Hermione said. "That's a lot of power Harry, you need to control your anger."

"Did you hear what he said, some students stayed over break as well, which means the DA isn't safe." Harry said, we need to get back into the castle. The group ran back to the castle and burst back into the great hall to find that most of the DA had fallen in battle. There were a few left, but most had fallen in a surprise attack of the death eaters pretending to be students. By the time the four friends had arrived, it was just the last few older members of the DA standing, Neville, and Luna were two of them, Lavender Brown, and the Parvati twins were a couple others. "We've got to get the younger students and get to Order headquarters." Harry said, "everybody get your stuff and meet me at the castle entrance in ten minutes, I'll go get the younger students."

Harry ran and told the younger students and Dean, that it was now safe and to get their stuff and meet him at the castle entrance in ten minutes. Harry ran and grabbed his stuff which was still packed. Then ran down to the entrance hall, when the rest of the students arrived a few minutes later he said, "The older students, the sixth and seventh years that know how to apparate, I want you to take a younger student with you. I will wait here until everybody is gone, we will walk just off grounds to do it."

After all the DA had arrived at Order headquarters, Harry decided that he was going to have to cancel the meeting that night. He informed the Order of what had happened at the school.

"Well, it looks like you guys will be in need of teachers then," Mad Eye said. "I'll teach Defense against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration."

"And I'll teach Potions and Charms" Bill said.

"Anything else you guys may need taught?" Mrs Weasley asked.

"Well, not really." Harry said.

Harry noticed that Bill and Mad Eye were talking in the corner. A moment later they came up to the students. "Here are you schedules. Classes begin tomorrow." Mad Eye said.

Harry took a look at his schedule, defense against the dark arts was at 10, followed by Transfiguration at 11, Charms was at 1 followed by Potions at 2, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Tuesday's at 10 was two hours of Charms, followed by two hours of transfiguration at 1, and on Thursday's he had two hours of potions at 10 followed by two hours of defense against the dark arts at 1. It turned out the fifth through seventh years all had the exact same schedule. Then the first through fourth years schedule were exact opposites, of the older students.

"Your classes will start Monday, be prompt, we have a lot to cover." Mad Eye said.

Harry went to talk to Mad Eye alone. "Professor Moody, My friends and I, were allowed to miss classes, and other things at Hogwarts if we kept up in our homework in order to complete our mission so we can finally destroy Voldemort. Are you going to allow us to go?"

"Of course Potter, I had done a lot of talking with your teachers prior to break and they told me all about it, and how it was Dumbledore's order, but only you, Ron, Hermione and Ginny are allowed to go." Mad Eye said. "I won't ask any questions of where you are going."

After that Harry decided he would go to the basement and look around for anything to remind him of his parents. As he was searching the basement he uncovered a book. It was his mother's Diary. He opened and began to read, _If you are reading this, it means that I am dead. You could only find this book, if you are related to me, and I assured that by creating this room. My husband and I are going to make this room our genealogy room, I figured I would start with mine. My entire genealogy is in this book..._

* * *

**A/N: Please Review!**


	20. Lily's Secret

**Chapter 20  
Lily's Secret**

Harry placed the diary in his robes, and began searching the room for anything else that might tell him of his parents past. After organizing most of the room and being ready to give up, he noticed another book in the corner, one that looked exactly like his mother's Diary. He went over and grabbed it, he noticed something written on the cover, This book belongs to James Potter. He also took this diary without looking at its contents and placed it in a separate pocket of his robes. After organizing the rest of the room, Harry returned upstairs to join the others for dinner.

"What's for Dinner?" Harry asked, "I'm hungry, I've been working all day."

"Working? I thought you went down there to find things that reminded you of your parents." Hermione said.

"Well, that's the reason I go down there, but to find anything, I had to clean it and organize it a bit better." Harry said.

"Well did you find anything interesting?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"No." Harry lied.

"Well dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Sit down and rest a while." Mrs. Weasley said.

"Thanks, I will." Harry said.

After dinner the entire DA went to their rooms, there were three bedrooms in the house, and a few spare rooms that were turned into bedrooms once the Order arrived there. They split it up to where the adults who were married go rooms to themselves. Then Mad Eye, who was really the only other adult who stayed at Order headquarters got one to himself, that took up all three actual bedrooms, with Bill and Fleur in one, Molly and Arthur in another, and Mad Eye in the last. That left the two spare rooms that had been turned into bedrooms for the DA members; he guys in one room and the girls in the other. They realized that it was crowded in the rooms with the entire DA and were relived to hear that all the younger students were going home leaving just Neville, Ron, Ginny, Luna, Harry, and Hermione at Order headquarters.

Classes were tough; Mad Eye was strict and paid more attention to the class then the imposter Mad Eye had done. Detentions were horrible; there were no rules of how not to punish the children so Mad Eye thought of ways to make the students stronger, although they rarely got detention with the classes being so small. Harry kept up with his work while taking breaks downstairs to read through is mother's diary. He found out that his parents were actually disappointed in his aunt for not being a witch. Lily tried to stay friends with Petunia but Petunia wouldn't talk to Lily because she was a witch. Harry finally understood why Petunia treated him the way she had treated him.  
Harry was planning on telling Ron, Hermione and Ginny, what he had found in the basement. He just wasn't sure he was ready to tell them yet, he figured after he finished reading his parents diaries he would tell them. He wasn't really finding out much about his mother, just her families history, and so far he hadn't found a witch or a wizard among them. He found it kind of boring and turned to reading his fathers diary, it was much more exciting, it told of adventures he had while a kid at school, and brought back memories of Sirius and Lupin as he read.

Harry wasn't sure what his father meant when he wrote G.G. is my G.G.'s G.G.'s G.G. He figured it was some kind of code and he could figure it out if he thought hard enough. Then again maybe it would be revealed later on in the diary. He continued reading and he found out that he was just like his father, always getting into trouble. Harry read one entry in his father's diary every night until he finished it, finding only one thing he hadn't understood in it. He figured he was ask Hermione for help figuring out what all the G's had meant.

Harry began reading his mother's diary again, which as it turned out, was just a genealogical record. He was currently to his Great Grandmother and still had no magical relations on his mother's side. It was getting late and he decided he would wait until the next night to go further.

Draco and Snape were sitting in a house that was unfamiliar to them, but deep below was the Horcrux Snape was guarding and Draco was helping since his had been taken already. They decided they would be the first line of defense for the horcrux, since the living room was the first step to getting the horcrux, which was ten levels below the house. The path to the horcrux could only be entered though the house. The House of Gaunt as it was known is where Voldemort's mother was born and raised. Being in the house which had been abandoned for years crept Draco out.

He just sat on the couch fearing for his life, not only was he afraid something in the house might kill him; he also knew the Dark Lord wanted him dead for failing to protect the horcrux. "Draco, don't worry, nothing is going to hurt you while I am here, the Dark Lord will not find out you were attacked before losing the horcrux, but that when you were summoned by him, the horcrux was stolen." Snape said.

Draco calmed down and began to relax; he became so relaxed he fell asleep. While Draco was sleeping, Snape decided to go down and look at the horcrux. Ten levels of mazes that made it hard to get through. He eventually reached the horcrux after a couple minutes with the map Voldemort had given him. Looking at the maps Snape realized what the hazard was of getting through the maze, every one of the ten mazes was so huge and complex with millions of dead ends, and only one way out, it was expected for them to be lost for days until they starved to death while looking for the horcrux.

Snape returned upstairs just as Draco was waking. "It's about time you got up, I think it's time we test your abilities. I'm going to run down to the horcrux, I want you to wait ten minutes then come down after me. We will see how long it takes you to get all the way down. On his way down, Snape summoned creatures and placed them behind him along the path to the horcrux, as a test to see if Draco would face creatures or try to find a way around, which of course there wasn't.

Draco waited ten minutes which had given Snape time to get to the horcrux and summon the creatures along the way. He started on his way through the first maze when he came to his first intersection, he decided to take the left path where he saw something in the distance, as he approached he realized it was a boggart. He destroyed it and continued on his way only taking turns where he saw creatures after about 30 minutes, due to fighting creatures he arrived at the horcrux.

"Very good Draco," Snape said, "you did exactly as I suspected you would do, see, the maze didn't have any creatures in it to begin with, I wanted to test to see if you'd face anything to take the path you thought was right. You did well."

"So if I had choosen to run from my fears, what would've happened?"

"Well after about an hour of waiting for you to get here, I would have come up looking for you."

"And if you never found me?"

"Then you would've starved to death."

"Could I not have just apparated out?"

"No, this place is like Hogwarts, nobody can apparate in or out of this place."

"So in other words, the Dark Lord intends for people to die in the maze."

"That's right Draco, now if I hadn't placed those creatrures there do you think you would've ever found your way here?"

"No sir. I figured the Dark Lord put creatures on the path to protect the horcrux just like he did with the room of monsters. So I took the path that had the creatures. I would've gotten lost otherwise."

"Well, that is all I wanted Draco, let's return up stairs." Draco and Snape went back upstairs. When they arrived at the top of the stairs they were greeted by their master. They bowed and kissed the hem of his robes.

"Draco, what are you doing here? Didn't I tell you to protect another one of my Horcruxes?" Voldemort said.

"Yes but when you summoned us the other day, it was gone when I had gotten back, So I figured I would help Snape protect his for my failure." Draco said.

"I'm sorry Draco, I must kill you for your second failure."

"Master, Wait" Snape said, "He did manage to kill Regulus Black, as you asked him too."

"Is this true Draco?" Voldemort asked.

"Yes, master. He was trying to get the horcrux before you summoned me and I killed him before he could get to it, then I left to come to you when you summoned. I heard he was training Potter, and since Potter is at Hogwarts, he must have gone in right after I left."

"Well, I still need to punish you Draco. After all I still lost another one of my horcruxes thanks to you, but you did kill one of my enemies. Don't worry Draco, this won't hurt for long. SPEBEREL" A jet of purple orange light hit Draco square in the chest. He fell to the ground writhing in pain, as huge gashes appeared all over him. Then the Dark Lord muttered something and Draco was healed. "Do not let this horcrux be destroyed. I have only two left."

The Dark Lord turned around and walked out the door, Draco and Snape then heard a loud crack letting them know the Dark Lord had disapparated. Draco paced around the house, not knowing what he was going to do. As Draco was waking away, Snape took out a piece of parchment and a quill and scratched a letter to somebody, he only used a code name in the letter, Flow.

Harry awoke the next morning and went straight to Hermione to tell her what he had been doing, and to ask for her help to figure out what his father had meant. He ran downstairs and joined everybody for breakfast. He sat next to Hermione and whispered "I need your help with something after breakfast, I'd prefer if you came alone, but Ron and Ginny can come as well."

After breakfast Harry and Hermione ran upstairs to the girls room knowing that Ginny and Luna were still at breakfast. Harry told Hermione about his parent's diaries and what he had found.

"G.G. is my G.G's G.G's G.G." Hermione repeated. "I'm not sure what that means but we could try some spells to see if we can find anymore information in the diary."

"Well, maybe after I finish my mother's diary, it's her genealogy, maybe there is some clue in here." Harry said, while holding up the diary. Hermione took it and glanced through it quickly, near the end she stopped, and looked surprised.

"Harry, your mother is a descendant of Helga Hufflepuff."  
"What, my mother is a descendant of one of the founders of Hogwarts? How many generations between her and my mother?"

"Well Helga was her great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother."

"So Helga was her great grandmothers, great grandmother's, great grandma?"

"Yes, she must have been." said Hermione vaugley. Harry could tell that she was doing some serious thinking. "Hold on," she said suddenly, "Suppose the first "G.G." stood for "Godric Gryffindor"? Then, each of the following "G.G.s" stood for "Great-Grandfather?"

_Godric Gryfindor?_ The name stirred something in Harry's memory. Sure, he had helped to bring Hogwarts about... Dumbledore! Hadn't Dumbledore once said, in Harry's Second year, that only A _True _Gryffindor could have pulled the Ruby Encrusted sword from the Sorting hat? Perhaps there had been a deeper meaning!

"Hermione," Harry said quickly, getting up, "I've just had a thought. Dumbledore told me, that night Ron and I went into the Chamber of Secrets, that only a true Gryffindor could have pulled his sword from the Sorting hat. D'you think -- er-- that that could mean anything?"

Hermione's eyes bulged.

"Harry! If that's right, you're a Descendent of _Two _of the Founders! That would also explain why you're such a great wizard." Harry nearly blushed. "You'd have gotten your bravery from your father, who had it from Gryffindor, and your great love from your Mother! It makes sense.

"But if my mom was a descendant of Hufflepuff, how come when I was reading about her genealogy I didn't see any witches or wizards?" Harry asked.

"How far had you gotten?"

"My great grandmother."

"Well, your great grandmothers, great grandmother was a squib who married a muggle, and all her children were muggle's and so on, until your mother." Hermione said.

"How come nobody told me, I'm sure somebody knew."

"You read the first part Harry, she said she was just starting it for her history so if anybody knew it was your dad, and since they both died that night, nobody else found out."

"Well I guess that would be the end of the diary right?"

"No, that's just her genealogy, there's at least another twenty pages of diary entries after that."

Harry took the diary back from Hermione and looked through it, sure enough there were more entries after the genealogy portion, he turned page after page, and it seemed to never stop, with each page turn more and more writing appeared when he thought he got to the end more appeared, this diary was way more magical then he thought at first. The stories intrigued him as he began to read.


	21. The Mysterious Letter

**Chapter 22  
The Mysterious Letter**

Harry took Ron to St. Mungo's hospital as fast as he could. He wondered why the others hadn't noticed he was with them. Hogwarts was pretty much destroyed after all the fights, and now Ron was hurt. _'There would never be a Hogwarts anymore'_ he thought _'and I was thinking about becoming the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher'_. Once he and Ron had arrived at St. Mungo's, he sent an owl to Order headquarters to let them know what had happened to Ron.

When the Order arrived at St. Mungo's a healer brought them to Ron's room where Harry was watching over him. "How's he doing?" Molly asked Harry as she entered the room.

"He's sleeping right now, but they say he should be fine after a few days care. He took a Sectemsempra curse straight to his chest. I did what I could to keep him alive long enough to get here." Harry replied. "He saved my life though, if he hadn't disobeyed me, I would've been captured by the death eaters if they hadn't just let me die."

"Well, I am thankful you repaid your debt by saving his life." Molly said, as she hugged Harry.

Classes were cancelled until Ron had time to recover seeing as how the students were usually at St. Mungo's with Ron. "Harry," Hermione said, "shouldn't we be trying to figure out where the next horcrux is? I mean being at headquarters is kind of boring without classes or doing anything."

"Not without Ron, we are all in this one together." Harry replied.

"You seemed to want to do things on your own last time." Ginny said.

"We always figured out where the horcruxes were together, and depending on how dangerous I thought it was determined if I wanted you guys to accompany me." Harry replied, "I need you guys safe for when we go up against Voldemort."

"Yeah, but we are useless without you Harry, if you die, Voldemort wins." Hermione retorted.

"Fine you guys may accompany me everywhere else I go, I have no need to go anywhere alone anymore, everybody that was teaching me, just me anything is dead. Those few people that knew my parents and knew me are all dead." Harry said.

"All but three." Came a voice from the door way. Harry turned around to see who it was, it was Mad Eye Moody.

"Three?" Harry said, "Who? You are one I guess, but the Weasley's weren't in the order the first time so they didn't know them."

"Well, I never said they were on our side." Mad Eye replied, "Voldemort of course knew them, and knows you, and your former potions master, Severus Snape."

"Yeah, I guess they did, but I can never talk to them, they would kill me first chance they got." Harry replied.

"Well Potter, you can always talk to me if you need to." Mad Eye said as he limped out of the room.

Harry thought about what Mad Eye said really considering it but then something happened to distract him. There was a knock on the window from a snowy owl Harry didn't recognize. Harry opened the window and the owl flew in and right past everybody it searched the house and then not finding the person it was looking for flew back to the room where Harry had let it in. Harry had closed the window so it couldn't escape; they got the owl down and took the letter at a cost of a few pecks and scratches. The letter was addressed to somebody by the name of Flow.

"We probably shouldn't look at that Harry." Hermione said.

"The owl came here, I could tell it was looking for somebody here, what if somebody is working for Voldemort had has the codename so they could receive messages from death eaters while at headquarters." Harry said, "I say we open it and see if we can figure out whom it was suppose to go to."

"I'll compromise with you Harry, if we can figure out who it was suppose to go to, I'll let you open it." Hermione said.

"How are we supposed to figure it out without any information?" Harry asked.

"But we do have information Harry? We have a codename, and the knowledge that the owl couldn't find who it was looking for." Hermione stated.

"Fine I'll agree to that." Harry said. Harry handed the letter over to Hermione. Hermione took the letter and placed it in her robes.

"Now let's think who could it be?" Hermione said.

"It's somebody in the Order who isn't here." Harry said. "and there codename is Flow."

"Well, the only Order members not here are either dead or work for the ministry." Ginny said.

"Well if they sent the letter here the person who it is meant for would still be alive." Harry said.

"But owls don't go to a certain location; they go to a certain person, so what if it is somebody dead." Hermione said.

"I'd like it a lot better if it was someone from the ministry, there's a lot less of them." Harry said, "but if it is, it has to be somebody that died recently."

"That leaves us the teachers, and Lupin." Ginny said.

"And it's been all over the papers and about the Hogwarts situation that news got around quickly so everybody would know they were dead so it couldn't be one of them." Harry said.

"Which leaves Lupin." Ginny said.

"But there is no way it was him," Harry said, "Lupin would never be a spy, so we are back to square one. I say we look at the members that aren't here that are still alive."

"That's Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mr. Weasley, and a couple other ministry workers." Hermione said.

"Well, it's definitely not dad." Ginny said.

"And it's more then likely not Kingsley, and none of the other members ever come to headquarters." Harry said.

"So let's consider the codename, and let's not rule out Kingsley or Lupin." Hermione said.

"Flow" Harry thought, "What could it mean? Well flow means constantly moving, who is always on the move?"

"Kingsley and any of the other order members that work in the ministry. They are really busy these days so they are always moving." Hermione said.

Harry thought hard about any other possibilities, he was sure he encountered something like this before. He just didn't know when, and then a phrase appeared in his head, he hadn't understood it until he looked at it in the mirror, the phrase on the mirror of erised during his first year. "Hermione give me the letter." Harry demanded. Hermione handed him the letter, and Harry ran over to the mirror, he held the letter up to the mirror. Everybody looked at it "Wolf" Harry said, "who do we know that's a wolf?"

"Just one, Lupin." Hermione said.

"But Lupin can't be a spy, so it must be something else, only one way to find out. Let's open it." Harry said. Harry opened the letter and he read:

_Flow, I have news to give you about the secret you are helping the children with. I am guarding the last one, so they will have to go through me. The thing they are looking for is deep under the House of Gaunt through ten mazes below the house is the thing they seek. Help them figure it out in anyway you can as quickly as you can. I will place creatures on the correct path to the thing they are seeking. I will not hurt them, but I will have to fight for I am being watched. I have been doing as Dumbledore asked me too, and taking care of Draco, I have finally gotten through to him that he is choosing the wrong side, sometimes I think he was under his father's imperious curse. Then at other times I think he is like that moron Peter Pettigrew and is just doing it out of fear now. I can control him well enough to stay away, but he will be with me while I protect him from the dark lord. The sooner you help the children figure this out the sooner we can defeat the dark lord and get back to our lives._

_Your friend  
The HBP_

"SNAPE? Lupin was in contact with Snape this whole time and never told me, if he weren't already dead I'd kill him." Harry shouted.

"Harry, calm down now we see that Snape really is on our side." Ginny said.

"But I saw him kill Dumbledore, I was there I watched as the spell hit him and he flew over the tower while I could do nothing." Harry said.

"We also know where the horcrux is, and what the challenge is we have to go through to get to it. We also know that Snape has made it easier for us to get to the horcrux." Hermione said.

"Fine we wait for Ron to get better and then we go, we'll take a couple of Fred and George's hat's." Harry said, "but I get Snape."

* * *

Draco was pacing back and forth in the House of Gaunt. He noticed Snape was acting a little suspicious like he was preparing himself mentally for something coming up. Snape had been spending more and more time down with the horcrux then teaching Draco. 

Snape returned upstairs and said to Draco, "You have one last thing you need to learn."

"What is it Professor?"

"You need to learn to rely on your powers without a wand." Snape said.

"Perform spells without a wand? How is that possible?" Draco said.

"I didn't say spells, I said powers." Snape spat at him. "Every wizard has powers where they can perform magic without their wand. Each wizards is unique to themselves, but learning to do it requires the same abilities. I for one am very gifted with defenses without a wand."

"We will discover yours as you learn, but don't forget you can already do simple spells without a wand, as all wizards can." Snape said. "This will be the last part of your protection, being able to use your powers without your wand will catch others by surprise. After you learn this I will ask you to leave, I can't protect you anymore or make your choices for you, but I believe you will know what to do."

"If I must Professor I will leave. Teach me what I need to know." Draco said.

"First off, to learn to do things without a wand, you must be in danger and without your wand. Hand me your wand." Snape said. Draco did as he was told and handed over his wand. "Now you will need to concentrate hard reach deep inside you to where your magical power lies, and tap into it."

"How do I do that?" Draco asked.

"It is very similar to sensing magical presences, but instead of feeling things around you, feel them inside you, as you search you'll feel the magical presence get stronger and stronger until you have reached it's core, then release part of the energy." Snape said, "Now you need to learn to reach it before you can release it, and the fastest way to learn to release it is in order to protect yourself."

"I'll do my best." Draco said. He closed his eyes began concentrating as hard as he could, he could sense Snape moving around the room, then he focused even more until he was sensing the power within himself. It was stronger then he thought it was, no wizard has ever released this much power he thought to himself. He finally reached the point where it was its strongest. He just stayed there for a while letting himself feel the magic.

"Well, Draco have you reached it yet?" Snape asked. Draco snapped out of his trance.

"Yes, and I allowed myself to feel the magic within me for a while." Draco said.

"Good, now protect yourself." Snape muttered something and a dragon appeared out of thin air. Draco concentrated as the dragon came closer to him, he could feel the magic deep inside him, he reached it and then something happened he opened his eyes, and the dragon was staring right at him but couldn't see him. He began walking around, the dragon was still staring at that one spot.

"Professor, I did it." Draco yelled. "Professor?" Draco walked over right in front of Snape he wasn't moving either, nor could he hear him. Draco began to concentrate again, found the magic and then something happened again.

"How did you get in front of me, I just summoned that dragon in between us two seconds ago." Snape said.

"I did what you told me to do, I tapped into my magical power and used it. I think it stopped time." Draco said.

"Impossible, no wizard can stop time, we can travel through it, but we cannot stop it, if anything you were moving at an incredibly fast speed." Snape said. "Good job Draco."

"Professor, I had a lot of magic, more magic then I have ever sensed in anybody." Draco said, "how is that possible."

"You can only ever sense your full magical ability, everybody's core is masked by the bits of magic it sends throughout your entire body, if anybody were ever able to release their entire core of magic they could destroy anything." Snape said, "but at a cost, it would practically kill them. So in answer to the question I think you are asking, you are not the most powerful wizard in the world, but you do have the potential to be more powerful then your father was."

"Thank you Professor." Draco said.

"Now do as I asked you earlier Draco, you must leave now." Snape said. Draco did as he was told, walked outside and apparated home.

* * *

**A/N - woah short Chapter... the next one will be up soon! believe me! REVIEW PLEASE!**


	22. The Maze

**Chapter 23  
The Maze**

A few days past and Ron finally awoke and was released from St. Mungo's. He arrived at order headquarters and was immediately seized by Harry. "Ron, we have information to tell you." Harry said, "It's about the horcrux, we decided we weren't going to go without you."

"Thanks" Ron said, "but I don't think I should be going anywhere for a while. I'm still not feeling too well, and the healers say I should get as much rest as possible for the next few days."

"Well, we can always wait for you to feel up to it." Harry said.

"No, you guys need to get the horcruxes destroyed as soon as possible." Ron said, "The sooner we can defeat Voldemort the better, it means less people will get hurt like I did."

"If you really feel that way we will go without you, but we will fill you in on the details anyway." Harry said.

"Sounds good mate." Ron said as he sat down on his bed.

"The next horcrux is Hufflepuff's cup, it's deep under the house of gaunt, where Voldemort's mother was born and raised." Harry began, "Snape has been sent to protect it, so I finally get to deal with that git."

"It's about time as well." Ron said.

"Yes, but if it weren't for Snape we wouldn't have found out where it was so soon." Hermione said.

"You still trust Snape after what he did to Dumbledore?" Harry asked.

"I trust Dumbledore, and if he trusted Snape, and Snape was still communicating with Lupin, then I will trust Snape." Hermione said.

"Wait," Ron interrupted, "Snape told you where the horcrux was?"

"Well not exactly, I guess he hadn't heard that Lupin was dead, he sent a letter, using codenames to tell him what he knew, and to have Lupin tell us." Harry replied.

"Harry, don't you think it's a trap?" Ron asked.

"Yeah a little, but he knew we would trust Lupin, and if Lupin was working with them, or if he was working for us, then what is in the letter is going to be correct." Harry said. "But I'm going to follow it's instructions because I have to get to that horcrux, and at the end, I finally get to deal with that evil git."  
"What if Snape really is on our side?" Ron asked, "Then what will you do Harry."

"Give him what he deserves for killing Dumbledore." Harry said.

"Whatever, so continue on telling me the details on the horcrux." Ron said.

"Well," Hermione began, "like Harry said, it's deep under the house of gaunt through ten levels of mazes, each maze huge with only one correct path. Snape said he would place creatures for us to fight along the correct path."

"Snape, the teacher that doesn't like us, told us this?" Ron asked.

"He didn't mean to tell us, he meant to tell Lupin to tell us, but he didn't know Lupin had died." Hermione said.

"Ok." Ron said, "Anyway, please continue."

"Well, that's pretty much it Ron, that's all we know, and all we need to know about the horcrux." Harry said.

"Well, how what's your plan to get through the mazes and past the creatures?" Ron asked.

"Simple," Harry said, "I snuck a couple hats from your brothers shop, and since I gave them the money to start their shop, I don't feel guilty at all."

"I guess that'll get you through the maze pretty quick." Ron said.

"Yeah, we are getting ready to go, if you don't want to come with us." Hermione said.

"You guys go ahead and go, I'll just relax here, and have some fun." Ron said.

"Alright Ron, we will see you when we get back." Harry said. Harry, Hermione and Ginny went to tell Mad Eye, that they were leaving. They finally found Mad Eye in the kitchen.

"Professor Moody," Harry said, "We are going to leave on part of our mission."

"Very well, I'll expect you to keep up with your school work." Moody said.

"Schoolwork? I thought we were done with school." Harry said.

"Not you Potter, Ginny. She still has some work she will need to do. After all, she is going to be in school next year." Moody said.

"Ok, Professor Moody, I'll do my best." Ginny said.

"You guys may go then." Moody said.

The trio then headed off to the house of gaunt. They apparated there and stood in front of the house. It was a little more torn up then Harry had seen it when he was visiting memories with Dumbledore, but he recognized it as the correct house.

"Let's go." Harry said.

"Right," Ginny said.

Harry, Ginny, and Hermione headed into the house. Upon entering they were surprised at what they saw, from the looks of the house on the outside, it definitely wasn't what you would expect on the inside, it looked nice. "It's like the opposite of headquarters," Harry thought, "nice on the inside, trashed on the outside."

They proceeded through the house, looking for a way to get under the house, the finally came to a set of stairs that led to the basement. The trio slowly proceeded down their stairs. When they reached the bottom stairs there was a door, they went through the door and saw a huge maze.

"Well Snape was correct about the maze." Harry said, "So I say we follow the paths that have creatures placed on them."

They proceeded down the long path of the beginning of the maze, without coming to an intersection for what felt like hours. It was long, dark, and cold, they could barely see, even with having their wands lit. They finally reached the first intersection, the looked to the left and saw nothing, so they looked to their right and saw a sphinx.

"Why would Snape place so strong creatures in our path?" Harry asked.

"Simple, he told Voldemort he wanted to add extra protection, by adding creatures to the maze, and Voldemort had him add stronger creatures." Hermione said.

"You are so trusting in him. I think it's time to place our hats on so we can get by it." Harry said.

The other two agreed and the three of them placed their hats on their heads. They all disappeared and continued proceeding down the path to where the sphinx was. Then Harry realized the sphinx was blocking the entire path. "Well," he thought, "there are only a couple ways to get by this sphinx, and I know a pretty good one." Harry pulled out his wand, summoned up as much strength as he could, pointed his wand straight at the sphinx and screamed "REDUCTO." The sphinx flew backwards into the next turn and went through the concrete wall that the maze was built out of. Hermione took off her hat.

"Harry, you really are becoming extremely powerful, I think you need to watch your power, you could really hurt somebody, or maybe even yourself." Hermione said, while recovering from the shock.

"Sorry Hermione, but I figured it would be easier then solving the sphinxes riddle." Harry said.

"Well maybe if you were alone." Hermione said, "but I'm sure we could've figured it out pretty quickly."

"We need to continue, we don't have much time." Ginny said.

The group continued on their way down the path, making sure to always choose the path with creatures, they ran into dragons, and boggarts, and all sorts of other creatures they had fought in the room of requirement. They found that each level of the maze brought more and more creatures and stronger ones as well, once they ran into three Hungarian Horntails at once, while on the tenth level of the maze. After defeating the Horntails, they left the maze and went through one last door. They saw the horcrux sitting on a pedestal and a man standing close by it, they removed their hats.

"It's about time you got here Potter." Snape said, "The horcrux is over here, the death eaters are getting suspicious of me and Draco, who I've kept on our side and sent into hiding, so I don't have much time, I'm sure they will be here soon."

"What do you mean our side?" Harry asked.

"Those who are fighting against Voldemort." Snape replied, "I am on the Order's side"

"I don't believe you." Harry shouted. "REDUCTO"

Snape just stood there without his wand and without saying anything, but the spell did nothing to him. "You can't hurt me with that weak of a spell Potter, I'm more powerful then any of you ever knew, only the Dark Lord and Dumbledore know my true power." Snape said.

"How did that not effect you?" Harry asked.

"Every wizard has a special power, you might say, if they can tap into their full magical energy, they can release it without a wand. My power is a very strong defense, I was always careful to let some spells through do after I learned how to use my power." Snape said. "Harry just take the horcrux."

"You can't be on our side, there is some trap that will kill me when I take the horcrux, you KILLED Dumbledore, and now you want me dead." Harry said.

"You can't be that stupid Potter, Dumbledore is a brilliant man, if you just would look and use your mind, you would find everything you needed to know about that night on the tower." Snape said. "Now just take the horcrux."  
Snape walked over and to prove there were no traps took the horcrux off and slid it over to Harry's feet. "Now take it and go." Snape said.

"I'm sorry I ever doubted you Professor, thanks for all your help." Harry said, "now what was this talk about the death eaters being suspicious?"

"The death eaters are starting to doubt my loyalties, the Dark Lord hasn't noticed anything yet, but that one death eater, Bellatrix Lestrange, she thinks I am faltering in my training of Draco in the Dark Arts, and my loyalty to the Dark Lord, I fear she is on her way here to kill me and protect the horcrux herself." Snape said.

"Then we need to get you out of here, we can always use you on the inside." Harry said, "Here take my hat, it will act as an invisibility cloak, but only temporarily, enough time to get outside and apparate away. If we see her, we can take care of her." Harry said.

"Here, take the map, and make your way out, I'll follow, but as soon as we reach outside, I am gone." Snape said. Harry traded Snape the hat for the map. Harry reached down and picked up the horcrux, and they started on their way out.

"Wait," Hermione said, "Let me see the horcrux," Hermione then muttered something Harry couldn't understand, and another identical cup appeared on the ground. Harry, take this horcrux and destroy it while we are down here, if Bellatrix is coming she will try to make us give her the horcrux, and we can give her the fake, I got the idea from the locket, and I figured now would be a good time to use it."

"That's brilliant Hermione," Harry said, "Everybody stand back." Harry set the real horcrux down backed up a bit himself, and screamed "REDUCTO" The horcrux blew to bits, the group then went around destroying all the pieces until it was practically dust then began out of the maze again.

They were halfway out of the mazes when they ran into somebody familiar. It was a person they hadn't seen in almost a year, he had slick blonde hair, and a pale face. "SECTEMSEMPRA"


	23. A Giant Mistake

**Chapter 24  
A Giant Mistake**

The spell flew straight at Harry, but oddly did not it him. Snape had blocked the spell without Harry knowing he was there.

"Draco, I thought I told you not to come back to this house." Snape scolded, "I told you to hide yourself for protection."

"Why? Nobody can touch me now." Draco retorted, "After everything you've taught me to do, I'm invincible."

"Draco, who has placed you under the imperious curse?" Snape questioned, "this is not the boy I trained, the boy scared to kill anybody."

"I'm not scared anymore." Draco said. "Now it's time you died. AVADA KEDAV…"

Just as he was about to finish, he was hit by a stunning spell by Harry. Harry took his hat and placed it on Draco. "Professor, take Draco with you, I know Dumbledore didn't want this for him."

"Right." Snape replied. "Let's make it the rest of the way out of the mazes."

Escaping from the maze the trio ran out of the house of gaunt as quickly as they could when they ran into a familiar face, Bellatrix Lestrange. "Hand over the horcrux children, and I shall be easy on you." They heard a slight 'pop' as Snape apparated away with Draco.

"NO!" Harry said, knowing that if he gave it away too easily she would suspect it a fake, but if he let it slip in the battle she wouldn't suspect anything, other then Harry's weakness.

"Don't make me use force Potter, give it to me now." Bellatrix demanded. Just then another figure apparated to the house. It was another figure they recognized, Peter Pettigrew.

"Give us the Horcrux boy." Peter demanded.

"No, you stupid rat." Harry said.

"Then you three will die." Bellatrix said.

Harry, Ginny, and Hermione prepared for battle. Bellatrix sent a disarming charm at Harry who ran and jumped out of the way. Ginny fired a disarming charm at Peter who dodged out of the way.

"CRUCIO" Bellatrix bellowed, and the spell hit Hermione in the back. She fell to the ground and screamed in pain, Harry got angry. He turned around and faced Bellatrix head on. He started toward her gathering up power as he went. "CRUCIO" Bellatrix howled again. Harry just kept on walking, it was like the spell hadn't even hit him. He had tapped into his magical center, and was now able to do almost any spell without even thinking about it. Bellatrix kept sending spells at Harry nothing did anything to stop him. Harry raised his wand and screamed, "EXPELLIARMUS" it hit Bellatrix and she flew backwards as her wand flew out of her hand. He wand then flew right into Harry's outstretched hand.

"I won't kill you, or even hurt you, that is the job of a powerful friend of mine, who would like to settle a little debt." Just then Harry got hit by an expelliarmus charm from the back which had been sent by Peter. Harry and Bellatrix's wand flew out of his hand, and Harry fell over. He dropped the fake horcrux and it bounced away. Bellatrix got up and grabbed her wand, just as she was reaching for Harry's it flew into Harry's hand and Harry disappeared, and reappeared behind Bellatrix. Bellatrix could sense him and turned around. She summoned the Horcrux. Peter ran over toward Bellatrix and Harry.

"Give me back the Horcrux, Bellatrix, or face the consequences." Harry yelled.

"Never, oh, and never trust a death eater. AVADA KEDAVRA." She screamed. It flew right toward Harry. Peter as soon as Bellatrix started saying it began running toward Harry, and jumped in front of him at the last second. His last words were "I will finally pay my debt." Which he said as he was running. Peter fell over dead, just as Bellatrix apparated away, knowing Harry was going to be angry.

"Harry," Hermione said, "we should go now, before she realizes it's a fake and comes back for us."

"You don't understand how close I was to killing her, actually wanting to kill her. I think I'm losing control of my emotions, of my ability to love." Harry said, "I could only feel hate and anger when she attacked you, all I cared about was revenge. Just as I was about to kill her, I felt something, I knew I wasn't suppose to be the one to deal with her. That was to be Neville's job."

"Harry," Ginny said, "that just proves you haven't lost your ability to love. You were able to think of your friends and know that you shouldn't do what you were about to do due to your friends love for you, and your love for your friends."

"Let's go back to headquarters now." Hermione said. They all apparated back to headquarters. They told everybody what had happened, and they were all surprised that Snape was still on their side, after killing Dumbledore. That night at dinner, they noticed somebody was missing.

"Where's Harry?" Mad Eye asked.

Harry was sitting in the basement of order headquarters knowing nobody could find him there. He had destroyed all the horcruxes but Nagini and now it was just a matter of gathering a small army to fight Voldemort and his remaining death eaters. "I have the six members of the DA that will fight no matter what, the remaining members of the Order, that gives me about fifteen including myself. That's not enough to fight Voldemort and his death eaters and his army. Voldemort has a few death eaters left and himself, that's about six people, but then he has many creatures on his side. He easily has thousands at his command." Harry said to himself.

Harry sat and thought for hours about anything he could get to fight for him, all thoughts turned up negative. He had thought of the centaurs, but they said this was the humans war, and he thought of many other creatures who were already under Voldemort's command. "If only Hagrid was still here, he'd know what to do." Harry thought, and then it hit him. "GRAWP" he yelled. "I can get Grawp to fight for us."

Harry ran upstairs and realizing he had missed dinner, set out to get something from the fridge. He walked into the kitchen and was greeted by Ginny, Hermione and Ron, who were talking about what had happened at the house of Gaunt. Harry just ignored them for a while, while he got himself something to eat.

"Harry," Hermione asked, "How did you just run through all of Bellatrix's spells back at the house of Gaunt?"

Harry thought about what she asked for a minute, he hadn't even realized he had just walked through the spells. He thought about it and realized he had felt something he had never felt before, a strong magical energy within himself. Harry answered her, "I'm not exactly sure how I did that, all I know is I felt a strong magical energy within myself unlike anything I have ever felt before."

"How can you not know how you did something?" Ron asked.

"The same way I did everything before I found out I was a wizard. The magic within me reacted to my emotions I guess." Harry said. "All I know is I've never done anything like that before. I felt raw power flowing through my body, and I guess it just released itself."

"I've heard of something like that before." Hermione said. "All wizards have a magical core within in them. If a wizard can tap into it, they can release the magic without a wand or saying anything, but it's usually limited to a certain range of spells, such as defense, charms, curses, counter-curses, healing, and movement are some examples. But it's unheard of that somebody can do more then just a few spells from one area, much less most spells from every area."

"So you are saying I tapped into my magical core?" Harry asked, "But I don't even know how to do that."

"You said, you felt a strong magical energy within yourself that could be your magical core." Hermione said. "Think about it Harry it makes sense, even if you don't know how to do it you did it, now if only you could learn to do it whenever you wanted."

"Yes then I would have a great weapon against Voldemort." Harry said.

"So I say we research how to do that." Hermione said.  
"Or we could just ask Snape." Harry suggested, "I'm sure he knows how, and we can contact him through Lupin's codename. Oh, and I was thinking about gathering a small army to fight Voldemort's army, I feel the final battle is getting closer. But the only creature I could think of that we can get to join us, is Grawp."

"Grawp!" Hermione said, "Isn't that a bit dangerous now that Hagrid is dead?"

"Yes, but it's a chance I'm willing to take." Harry said. "We need all we can for the final fight against Voldemort."

"Have you figured out how you are going to talk to him?" Hermione asked, "He barely understands us he may not know what you mean."

"I know, but you have had luck with him before, I was hoping you could come with me and help." Harry said.

"If it is absolutely necessary I will go with you Harry. I'll do whatever is needed to defeat Voldemort." Hermione said.

Harry and Hermione decided they would go to the Forbidden Forest that night to talk to Grawp. They told Mad Eye what they were doing, and told him it was almost time to go fight Voldemort. "Great, I'll start preparing the Order." Mad Eye said.

"You can start preparing but don't go until I give word." Harry said.

Harry and Hermione then took off for the Forbidden Forest. They apparated to hogsmeade and proceeded there way up to Hogwarts grounds and the Forbidden Forest. Once they reached the gate to the grounds Harry blew it away with a reducto spell. They ran up to the edge of the forest to where Hagrids cabin used to be then proceeded into the forest to find Grawp.

"Hagger, is that you." They heard.

"No, it's Harry, and Hermione, Hagrid's dead." Hermione said.

"Hagger's dead?" Grawp said.

"Sorry." Hermione said, "we came to ask for your help."

"HAGGER"S DEAD." Grawp said, as large tears began to escape from his eyes. "What Grawp gonna do without Hagger."

"Grawp, will you help us defeat Voldemort, he is the reason Hagrid's dead." Hermione said.

"Hermy say Voldymore reason Hagger's dead?" Grawp said, "Voldymore will pay." Grawp started picking up trees and throwing them around. He was tearing up the entire forest do to his anger the whole time saying "Voldymore pay." Grawp then picked up one last tree and threw it, it hit Hermione before landed on the ground. Hermione was knocked out and Grawp was still flailing around and was headed straight for Hermione. Harry summoned as much power as he could and screamed, "REDUCTO." It sent Grawp flying back away from Hermione and through the trees tearing up more of the forest then Grawp had done. He figured Grawp was dead just as many other's were when he had done that to them.

Harry ran over to Hermione, she was barely breathing. He had to get her to St. Mungo's. He made sure he did all he could to make sure that she stayed alive until they arrived at St. Mungo's, just as he had done from Ron.

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**A/N: well... sorry about the long time between chapters... PLEASE REVIEW! -! feel free to ask me any questions!**


	24. The Phoenix Falls

Chapter 25  
The Phoenix Falls

Harry got Hermione to St. Mungo's and let the Order know what had happened. The order then realized just how much trouble it was going to be to get this army to fight against the death eaters, but they knew they couldn't do it alone. They only had about fifteen people who could fight in the order, and only five now in the DA.

"We still need an army." Mad Eye said, "how are we going to to get them?"

"I'm going to stay with Hermione until she gets better, after all it is my fault she is like this." Harry said. "I think you should go."

"Agreed Potter, I'll go along with Bill and Charlie to gather as large of an army as we can." Mad Eye said. "We shall leave immediately."

Mad Eye grabbed Bill and Charlie and they left to gather the army while the DA stayed with Hermione. "We need to plan out how to get Nagini away from Voldemort long enough to kill her so we can finally destroy Voldemort." Harry said.

"Well, what do we know about her?" Ginny asked.

"She is always with Voldemort." Harry said.

"She can't always be with Voldemort, think Harry, think." Ginny said.

A vision of an old man walking up the stairs flashed in Harry's mind. He looked at everything around the man, there was nothing but an open door at the end of the hall at the top of the stairs. Then as the man arrived at the top of the stairs, a snake slithered past him after coming up the stairs as well. "That's it." Harry exclaimed, "during my fourth year when I saw the vision of Frank Bryce being murdered, before he reached the room, Nagini slithered up the stairs and right past him. Well I don't know if she slithered up the stairs but she came from behind him after he had gone up the stairs."

"Well, let's assume she did come from downstairs, do you think maybe she stays down there at times when her and Voldemort are in the Riddle house?" Ginny asked.

"It's possible, but I did see the downstairs as well in the vision and don't remember seeing a place she would stay." Harry said, "but, it is a huge house, so I'm sure I didn't see all of it. There could be a place for her to stay somewhere in the house."

"We have to figure it out for sure." Ginny said, "It's the last puzzle to destroying the horcruxes."

"We'll think about it, but for now let's get some rest." Harry said.

Snape was in Spinner's end with Draco. Snape was yelling at Draco for not listening to him. "Why did you not just go into hiding Draco?" Snape asked. "Did somebody place you under the imperius curse?"

"Yes sir, Bellatrix Lestrange as I was going into hiding, she knows you aren't as loyal as you claim to be." Draco said.

"Draco, listen to me, you must go into hiding, somewhere were nobody will ever find you, not even me. I will let you know when it is time to come out." Snape said. "Don't tell anybody where you are, if you have too, stay constantly on the move."

"Right Professor I will." Draco said, "but don't you need to go into hiding as well?"

"Yes I do, but I know exactly where I can go that nobody can find me." Snape said. "Let's leave now before they come looking for us."

Draco and Snape disapparated away, Draco apparated into a tropical rainforest while Snape apparated to Order headquarters, Harry had told him where it was. Snape went in to make sure no death eaters could ever find him.

Voldemort was sitting in his house with Nagini, "You are the last of my precious horcruxes." Voldemort hissed to Nagini, "I want you to protect yourself at all costs, and hide down in your lair. I will be up here ready to protect you."

Nagini listened to her master and slithered down to her lair. Voldemort summoned his death eaters. They all quickly apparated to his side, "My loyal servants, you may notice three of us are missing. Two are traitors." Voldemort said. "if you see them, kill them. Now as a matter of more business, Potter has destroyed all but one of my horcruxes after all, the one that Bellatrix claimed to have saved was a fake. We must protect my precious snake she is my last and the only thing keeping me alive if I were to die again."

"As you wish master." The death eaters murmured in unison.

"Now I figure the best way to protect her will be to cause a distraction." Voldemort hissed with anger. "You will go to the ministry tonight and attack, while I stay and protect Nagini."

Mad Eye, Bill, and Charlie arrived back at order headquarters after gathering a small army. They had convinced a couple of the centaurs to fight with them, and a few other creatures but not many. They only had the remaining order members, the DA, and that small army.  
The Order sat down to dinner when Snape came in. "Just as a warning, I know the Dark Lord was planning an attack on the ministry to distract everybody while he did a better job of hiding and protecting his last horcrux." Snape said, "you guys may want to go now to be ready to stop them."

"Do you know where he will be hiding Nagini?" Harry asked.

"In his fathers house." Snape said, "there is a lair deep under the house where Nagini sometimes stays. Voldemort visits her down there sometimes but usually he calls her to him. I figure now he himself will be protecting her and creating lots of protection for her. You need to learn to tap into your magical core in order to even stand a chance of getting to Nagini without him knowing. I can teach you if you'd like."

"That would be great, we can start after we return from the ministry." Harry said, "Let's go guys." The Order and the DA left for the ministry so they could warn them. They were able to get the ministry out before the death eaters arrived, and got the other Order members to join them.

Deep inside the ministry of magic the Order of the Phoenix, the DA, and the small army they assembled stand their ground as the death eaters begin their attack on the ministry. Voldemort knowing he was down to his last horcrux was not going to take any chances he was going to finish this war now while he still had Nagini.

The death eaters started their way through the ministry destroying everything in their path. Mad Eye stood at the lead of the order waiting to attack, he looked over at Harry, Harry nodded. "Let's go guys." Mad Eye shouted.

Mad Eye, Kingsley, and the older Weasley's went off in the first run as Harry waited back with the DA and the rest of the Order. Harry watched as the Order took down many of the death eaters but it seemed for every one they took down three more came, and their were all sorts of dark creatures in the fight.

"Ready," Harry said, "Let's go." The rest of the order and the DA and the small army of creatures Mad Eye had assembled charged into the battle. Harry went after the creatures knowing he could take down a lot of them in a short amount of time. Harry went straight after the dementors, "EXPECTO PATRONUM" Harry shouted. The beautiful silvery-gray stag erupted from his wand and charged at the dementors, this time it was more then the dementors could handle. Harry watched as the dementors seemed to absorb too much good energy and they seemed to just disappear, while others just ran away. Harry called the patronus back, he then began to focus on the giants, he would take care of them just as he had done to Grawp.

Harry ran straight after the giants who were on the front line as a shield for the death eaters. "REDUCTO" Harry screamed pointing his wand at the largest of the giants, and it flew backwards taking a few of the other giants and the trolls with him, as they crashed into the back wall. Harry looked around at what was happening in the battle, it seemed the order wasn't fairing well. Harry went over to help and watched as a death eater sent a killing spell right at Mad Eye. Mad Eye fell over dead. "Alright guys lets finish this" Harry shouted. The order charged after the death eaters with Harry in the lead, Harry was taking down the dark creatures left and right while the order and the DA took on the death eaters.

"Harry," Ginny shouted, "don't you think you should be going to the Riddle house to find Nagini. If you go now you'll have more time to do what you need to do."

"Right" Harry said, "you guys be careful, I'm going back to headquarters then." Harry started off to headquarters but before he left he made sure all the creatures were incapacitated. Harry arrived back at headquarters and found Snape. "I need you to teach me how to tap into my magical core."

"Then let's get started, the sooner the better." Snape said. "Now I assume that Regulus taught you how to sense magical energies outside your body then?"

"Yes he did, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"It has everything to do with it. The same level of concentration is needed for this, except this time you must find a way to search inside yourself." Snape said. "Once you can find it quickly you will be able to do it without even thinking really."

"Ok I'll do it." Harry said.

"Not yet, Potter, the best way to do it is to be in danger and without a wand, seeing as how this is supposed to be a source of protection." Snape said, "so hand me your wand."

Harry hesitated a bit, but knew that Snape knew better then he did, he handed over his wand to Snape as Snape summoned a dragon in front of Harry. "Concentrate, then go inside yourself and feel the magic that is within you."

Harry concentrated as hard as he could, he sensed Snape and the dragon around him. Then after concentrating a little bit harder was able to find a way to focus on just himself, he felt a magical energy that was extremely stronger then the others. He searched and finally found were the magic was the strongest. He then released what he could. The dragon disappeared and seemed to Snape that it had blown up into millions of little pieces.

"Potter, come here." Snape demanded. Harry snapped out of his concentration, and walked over to Snape. "Potter, do you realize what you just did?" Snape asked.

"No sir," Harry said, "I guess I made the Dragon disappear."

"Not exactly Potter." Snape said, "You dematerialized it."

Harry looked confused, "Professor, what exactly does that mean?" he asked.

"It means," Snape spat, "That you can kill any creature just by thinking about it now. You made it lose its body, you turned it into a million small little pieces which would normally take thousands of years for nature to do."

Just then Ginny came running into headquarters. "Harry, we fought off the death eaters, but at major casualties, all the death eaters are either dead or in Azkaban, but we lost Moody, Kingsley, and Bill to the death eaters, and many other Order members are seriously injured and in St. Mungo's." Ginny said.

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**A/N:** Woah sorry I havent uploaded in a-g-e-s but I kinda had a massive bout of writers block and just this morning I found these chapters in my hard drive and realised I hadn't put them up.. so I will! Maybe this will give me more inspiration.. 

**PLEASE REVIEW!! Help is greatly appreciated! -!**


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